The 2018 American Innovation $1 Introductory Coins in the rolls and bags have uncirculated finishes and were minted at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints.
The obverse design features a dramatic representation of the Statue of Liberty in profile with the inscriptions “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “$1.” The reverse design features George Washington’s signature and the inscriptions “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “AMERICAN INNOVATORS,” and “SIGNED FIRST PATENT.” The stylized gears represent industry and innovation. The year of minting, mint mark, and inscription “E PLURIBUS UNUM” are incused on the edge of the coin.
DE Innovation Dollar
Delaware is the first of four coins to be released this year. It features Annie Jump Cannon, a Delaware-born internationally recognized astronomer who invented a system for classifying the stars still in use today.
The reverse design features a silhouette of Annie Jump Cannon against the night sky, with a number of stars visible. Inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “ANNIE JUMP CANNON,” “CLASSIFYING THE STARS,” and “DELAWARE.”
PA Innovation Dollar
The Pennsylvania coin is the second of four to be released this year. It features the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1950s. At the time, polio was a devastating disease that disproportionally affected children and young adults and left many paralyzed and unable to walk.
The reverse depicts an artist’s conception of the poliovirus at three different levels of magnification along with the silhouette of a period microscope, representing the extensive research conducted to develop a cure for polio. The inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “POLIO VACCINE,” “1953,” and “PENNSYLVANIA.”
NJ Innovation Dollar
The New Jersey coin is the third of four to be released this year. It features an electric light bulb, developed by Thomas Edison and his team of researchers in New Jersey. The advent of commercially manufactured light bulbs gave people easy control over light in homes and businesses, which drastically changed infrastructure, business, and society by allowing work and social activities to occur regardless of the time of day.
The reverse depicts an Edison bulb against an ornate background. The inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “NEW JERSEY.”
GA Innovation Dollar
The Georgia coin is the last of four to be released in 2019. It features the Trustees’ Garden, established by James Oglethorpe in 1734. Oglethorpe was a British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist who founded the Colony of Georgia. The Trustees’ Garden is considered one of the first agriculture experimental gardens in America. The ten acres of land, located in Savannah, included plants from around the world so the colonists could determine the best crops for the Georgia climate. The Trustees’ Garden reflected the scientific and commercial aspirations of the trustees and their backers in England.
The reverse depicts a hand planting seeds in the inscription “TRUSTEES’ GARDEN,” from which grows a variety of species representing the variety of plants grown in the garden: an orange tree seedling, sassafras, grapes, white mulberry, flax, peaches, olive, and a young shoot too small to be identified. Additional inscriptions are “GEORGIA” and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”
MD Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Maryland honors the Hubble Space Telescope.
Developed by NASA and launched on April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopes. It was named in honor of American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble. It is also the first designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. Teams at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute–both located in Maryland–manage the telescope.
Data transmitted by Hubble has helped refine estimates of the age of the universe, trace the growth of galaxies, identify and study planets, identify black holes, and observe stars.
SC Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing South Carolina honors educator and civil rights activist Septima Poinsette Clark.
Born in 1898 in Charleston, South Carolina, Septima Clark pioneered the link between education and political organizing during the civil rights movement. Civil rights youth workers and community organizers referred to her as “Mother Conscience” and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to her as “The Mother of the Movement.”
NH Innovation Dollar
VA Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Virginia honors the Chesapeake Bay Bridge- Tunnel, recognized as an engineering marvel of the modern world.
Opened in 1964 and spanning more than 17 miles of open water, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connects southeastern Virginia to the Delmarva Peninsula. It consists of 12 miles of low-level trestle, two mile-long tunnels, two bridges, two miles of causeway, and four man-made islands.
The reverse (tails) design depicts a view of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel as a cross section cut away, illustrating the ingenuity involved in constructing it. Inscriptions are “United States of America” and “Virginia.”
NY Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing New York pays homage to the Erie Canal. Completed in 1825, the 363-mile long, man-made waterway connected Lake Erie in the West to the Hudson River in the East. Considered an engineering marvel of its day, the canal unlocked the western interior for trade and settlement, and played a critical role in the development of the state as well as the Nation.
NC Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing North Carolina recognizes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the first public institution of higher learning in the United States. Opened in 1795, it is the only public institution to confer degrees in the 18th century.
RI Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1
Coin representing Rhode Island recognizes naval architect Nathanael
Herreshoff’s famous Reliance yacht, which incorporated
numerous technical innovations when it was built in 1891.
VT Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Vermont recognizes the invention of snowboarding.
KY Innovation Dollar
The
American Innovation $1 Coin representing Kentucky recognizes the invention of
bluegrass music. Bluegrass has roots in traditional English, Scottish, and
Irish ballads and dance tunes, as well as in traditional African-American blues
and jazz. The genre derives its name from the band “Bill Monroe and the Blue
Grass Boys,” which has been dubbed the “Original Bluegrass Band.”
TN Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Tennessee recognizes the formation of the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1933, Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to construct transmission lines to serve “farms and small villages that are not otherwise supplied with electricity at reasonable rates.” As late as the mid-1930s, nine out of ten rural homes were without electric service.
OH Innovation Dollar
This Ohio American Innovation $1 Coin
reverse (tails) design is emblematic of the Underground Railroad. It depicts
two strong hands grasped together, the upper arm pulling the lower arm upward,
representing the support and strength of the Underground Railroad. A chain
fastened to a rustic shackle around the lower arm’s wrist snaps and fragments,
alluding to the hope of freedom. Inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,”
“UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,” and “OHIO.”
LA Innovation Dollar
The Louisiana American Innovation $1 Coin reverse (tails) design
depicts a Higgins Boat as it would have been deployed during World War II with
its innovative landing ramp open against a beach. Inscriptions are “UNITED
STATES of AMERICA,” “THE HIGGINS BOAT,” and “LOUISIANA.”
IN Innovation Dollar
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Indiana recognizes
the automobile industry. Indiana boasts a long history of innovation in
automobile manufacturing and promoting the automobile in American culture. They
played a role in the invention, refinement, and manufacture of headlights,
rearview mirrors, tilt steering, cruise control, pneumatic rubber tires, and
car heaters. Indiana produced a number of auto parts manufacturing companies
and automobile producers, including Marmon, Studebaker, Milburn Wagon Works,
and Duesenberg.
Indiana also promoted the automobile in American popular culture
through car racing. The Indianapolis 500 is one of the world’s oldest
automobile races. The creator of the Indianapolis 500, Carl Fisher, also
conceived of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile-specific transcontinental
highway across the United States.
MS Innovation Dollar
The Mississippi American Innovation $1 Coin reverse (tails) design features a pair of human lungs in the background, while a surgical assistant passes forceps to the surgeon during the first lung transplant surgery. Inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “FIRST HUMAN LUNG TRANSPLANT,” and “MISSISSIPPI.”
2024 IL Innovation Dollar
The
Illinois American innovation $1 Coin reverse (tails) design features a large
steel plow blade affixed to a right-handed beam and braces. Behind the plow is
a stand of Big Bluestem prairie grass and a field of soil below. Included
inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “STEEL PLOW,” and “ILLINOIS.”
2024 AL Innovation Dollar
The Alabama American innovation $1 Coin reverse (tails) design
depicts the power and force of the Saturn V rocket lifting off with the Moon in
the background. Included inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “SATURN
V,” and “ALABAMA.”
2024 ME Innovation Dollar
Dr.
Bernard Lown was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist who put his heart into
saving lives. He immigrated to the United States in 1935 to escape Nazi
persecution for his Jewish heritage, eventually settling in his new hometown of
Lewiston, Maine. Lown would go on to study medicine and invent the Direct
Current Defibrillator, a lifesaving device that uses direct electrical current
in time with the heartbeat’s cycle to correct abnormal rhythms thought to be
responsible for 40% of fatal heart attacks in the United States.
2024 MO Innovation Dollar
George Washington Carver was born into slavery
in Diamond, Missouri. He went on to become the agricultural scientist who
helped save the South’s agrarian economy. Following the abolition of slavery,
many formerly enslaved people became small-scale farmers, but struggled to
thrive on nutrient-depleted land due to single-crop overuse. Dr. Carver knew
that his lessons on crop rotation and practical farming methods could help if
they could reach farmers outside of his classrooms at Tuskegee University. In 1906, Dr. Carver designed and built an
agricultural school and laboratory on wheels known as the Jessup Wagon. The
wagon visited farming communities throughout the South to provide
demonstrations and distribute simple but informative pamphlets to those who needed
them most. These efforts helped many small farmers improve their yields, earn
profits, and save their livelihoods with soil-enriching crops like the peanut,
which Dr. Carver used to develop more than 300 products and uses. His research
and outreach not only improved the lives of individual American farmers but
changed Southern agriculture forever.