Release: JANUARY 17, 2025
Those lucky enough to have traveled to other countries are fortunate to see the different coins and currency used there. Coinage abroad or even as close as Canada and Mexico can seem exotic and come in varying shapes. Topics on them also are fascinating, often showing indigenous wildlife, scenery and architecture. (In fairness, our recent array of commemorative quarters has given those coins a run for their money.)
Foreign paper money tends to be far more colorful and diverse than ours. Many countries rotate designs on their currency to showcase famous citizens, inventors, artisans and more. Some also embed plastic panels in them as anti-counterfeiting devices.
It would be sad to travel internationally and never see some of the monies the countries offer. Ironically, the biggest culprit of that is the United States. Here, we have several coin programs that never see the light of day and few people ever get to admire....
The primary coins in question are golden dollars created by the Mint. It began with the ill-fated Sacajawea golden dollars in 2000. Even though those flopped, the Mint kept producing them. Then, in 2007, the Mint created more golden dollars, this time a series of Presidential coins featuring, in order, every former president who had served and subsequently died. (A Jimmy Carter golden dollar coin will soon be released.)
It didn’t stop there. In tandem with the presidential golden dollars, in 2009 the Mint began striking a series of Native American golden dollars. Those combined Sacajawea’s image on the front with an Indigenous person or allegorical native symbol on the reverse.
On top of that, in 2018, the Mint began yet one more series of golden dollars celebrating “American Innovation.” For that, each of the 50 states, plus our US territories, gets to showcase an innovation they consider paramount to them. Five such golden dollars are issued each year.
Here’s the problem. Try as the Mint did, no US golden dollars ever caught on. Unlike Canada where they love and actively use dollar and two-dollar coins, in the US they fell flat. In 2011, the Mint stopped shipping any golden dollars to the Federal Reserve or banks. They still make them. They just don’t distribute any for public use. Golden dollars can now only be ordered directly from the Mint. That means they are limited to collectors who make the effort to order and pay a premium for them. Casual shoppers, tourists or basically anyone else will never see them.
An ideal example is the newest golden dollar coin in the American Innovation series. While previous subject selections for some of those “Innovation” coins have been lackluster, the first 2025 offering is intriguing. It shows the image of an older woman’s portrait above a modern military frigate ship of war. That may seem to be a disconnect. Not so fast. The two are inextricably connected.
The frigate is a US Navy Oliver Hazard Perry-class ship. That is a versatile vessel designed to detect enemy submarines, defend convoys, employ active electronic warfare systems or protect larger ships from attacks.
The mystery woman on the coin is Raye Montague. She hailed from Arkansas – the state to which the coin is associated.
Montague was raised in Little Rock with a mind for engineering. After graduating college, she went on to Maryland’s Naval Surface Warfare Center as a digital computer systems operator. She rose in the civilian ranks. In 1984, she was named deputy program manager of the entire Navy’s Information Systems Improvement Program. She was very good.
A closer look at the ship on the coin reveals it sailing atop a sea with a grid pattern. That’s reflective of Montague’s innovation of naval ship design via computer using her digitized engineering and drafting techniques to create the model. She alone innovated that technique.
A few years ago, a movie entitled “Hidden Figures” chronicled the careers of four essential female aeronautic engineers in the US space program who happened to be Black. Their contributions were epic. As it happens, Raye Montague is another hidden figure. She was Black. And, she too climbed the ladder to succeed and exceed.
Such an individual is deserving of recognition on a coin. The downside is her prominence on a golden dollar that will be all but hidden from the public or tourists. In military-speak, I think that’s a failed mission. For more information or to order, log onto www.USMint.gov.
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