The Buck Starts Here.The U.S. Mint performed some neat tricks to make a golden dollar Poor Susan B. Anthony. A pioneering 19th-century advocate of women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and , she suffered the misfortune of having her stalwart Stalwart A description of companies that have large capitalizations and provide investors with slow but steady and dependable growth prospects. Notes: The annual gain that would be viewed as the norm for investing in stalwarts is about 10% to 12%. visage stamped on a wildly unpopular U.S. coin. Because the Susan B. Anthony dollar The Susan B. Anthony dollar is a United States coin minted between 1979 and 1981, and again in 1999. It depicts women's suffrage campaigner Susan B. Anthony. The reverse depicts an eagle flying above the moon (with the Earth in the background), a design adapted from the Apollo 11 looks confusingly like a quarter, it never won the public's acceptance. Now, 21 years after its introduction, the Susan B. Anthony is about to retire. On Jan. 27, the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Mint shipped new golden dollar coins simultaneously to Federal Reserve Banks and the discount megastore Wal-Mart. Last month, the mint began an advertising campaign to introduce the coin to the public. The new dollar is different from the Susan B. Anthony, inside and out. No stern mugshot adorns this coin. Instead, the luminous face of Sacagawea, the young Shoshone woman who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803–6, U.S. expedition that explored the territory of the Louisiana Purchase and the country beyond as far as the Pacific Ocean. from 1804 to 1806, gazes from the coin's face. She carries her sleeping infant son, Jean Baptiste Jean Baptiste is a male French name, originating with St. John the Baptist, and may refer to one of the following:
The choice of metals used in the golden dollar took as much, if not more, work than the design did. "We pulled off a trick, a really nifty trick, when we chose the alloy for this coin," said Philip N. Diehl, the director of the U.S. Mint, addressing the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23. That trick saved companies from the expensive task of retooling millions of vending machines and coin-operated devices around the country. So far, it seems that the lessons learned from the Susan B. Anthony fiasco have paid off. The mint expects that within the first 3 months of release, demand for the Sacagawea dollar The Sacagawea dollar, along with the Presidential Dollar series, is one of the two current United States dollar coins. This coin was first minted in 2000 and depicts the Shoshone woman Sacagawea, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, carrying her son Jean Baptiste will reach more than half a billion coins, says Diehl. It took the Susan B. Anthony 14 years to reach that demand. The mint "cannot be satisfied with proving that the golden dollar is a beautiful racehorse racehorse refers usually to thoroughbred but may also include standardbred, trotter. ," he adds. "Our goals is for it to become the workhorse work·horse n. 1. Something, such as a machine, that performs dependably under heavy or prolonged use: "the 50-year-old DC-3 ... of American coinage coinage Certification of a piece of metal or other material (such as leather or porcelain) by a mark or marks upon it as being of a specific intrinsic or exchange value. Croesus (r. c. ." Even though consumers deemed the Susan B. Anthony a dismal failure, it's actually the most successful dollar coin the country has ever had. Nine hundred million are in circulation. The United States minted silver dollars sporadically between 1794 and 1935 and copper-nickel dollars bearing the image of Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1971 to 1978. In 1978, Congress authorized the minting of the Susan B. Anthony. Why does the country need a dollar coin? For the mint, it's a good investment. The Sacagawea dollar coin, which costs 12 cents to make, can last 30 years. A dollar bill, costing 3.5 cents, heads for the shredder after about 18 months. A popular dollar coin could earn a hefty profit for the U.S. Treasury U.S. Treasury Created in 1798, the United States Department of the Treasury is the government (Cabinet) department responsible for issuing all Treasury bonds, notes and bills. Some of the government branches operating under the U.S. Treasury umbrella include the IRS, U.S. , just as a successful product does for a private company. Coins also work a lot better than bills in vending machines. "Paper money is fickle fick·le adj. Characterized by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments; capricious. [Middle English fikel, from Old English ficol, ," says Thomas E. McMahon, vice president and counsel for the National Automatic Merchandising Association The National Automatic Merchandising Association, or NAMA, is the American national trade association of the food and refreshment vending, coffee service and foodservice management industries. Public relations is an important part of its mandate. in Chicago. "Too many times, it's not read properly, which results in a lost sale or at least a frustrated frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: customer." Also, machines give coins as change more easily than bills. The escalating price of vending machine items and the dwindling dwin·dle v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. supply of Susan B. Anthony dollars minted in 1979 and 1980 prompted Congress to enact legislation authorizing a successor. The United States Dollar Coin Act of 1997 specified that the new dollar coin be golden in color, have a distinctive edge, and be the same size as the Susan B. Anthony. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , the coin has to look and feel different to consumers but resemble the Susan B. Anthony closely enough to fool vending machines. Importantly, the act did not eliminate the dollar bill. Legislation that would have done that "sat in Congress and went nowhere for about 15 years," Diehl says. The proposal to make a coin along with the current dollar bill "flew through Congress [and] landed on the president's desk within 4 or 5 months." The Sacagawea coin has the same luster as 14-carat gold, though it does not actually contain the precious metal, says Michael White There are multiple public figures named Michael White or Mike White, including:
Testing done by the mint shows that consumers, both sighted and visually impaired, can pick out the coin by feel without trouble, says White. Whereas the coin must be distinctive to people, the country's 15 million vending machines need to treat it the same as the Susan B. Anthony. Had businesses been obliged o·blige v. o·bliged, o·blig·ing, o·blig·es v.tr. 1. To constrain by physical, legal, social, or moral means. 2. to retune all of their machines, says McMahon, many would have been unwilling to do so, which would in turn have hurt the coin's success. A new alloy developed by Olin Brass in East Alton, Ill., which has supplied the U.S. Mint with materials since 1964, allowed Sacagawea to masquerade as Susan B. Anthony. Vending machines identify a coin by its weight, size, and so-called electromagnetic signature. Vending machines typically test a coin's electrical conductivity by passing an alternating current through it and measuring the induced magnetic field, says Dennis R. Brauer, Olin's vice president of technology. Metallurgists at the mint could match the Susan B. Anthony's size and weight easily, but duplicating its electromagnetic properties proved to be much trickier. That signature depends on both the type of metal and the construction of the coin. Like all silver-colored U.S. coins, the Susan B. Anthony consists of a pure copper core sandwiched by two layers of a copper-nickel alloy. The material is durable, easy to stamp with a design, and tarnish-resistant. To make test coins, the mint asked Olin Brass to provide about 25 alloys in different thicknesses--a total of more than 30,000 samples. They hoped to find a coin that would duplicate the Susan B. Anthony's electromagnetic signature. Nothing worked. "All the golden color alloys had three times too much conductivity," Brauer says. What's more, different companies use different frequencies of alternating current in their coin acceptors, compounding the problem. "The higher the frequency, the shallower the penetration into the coin," Brauer explains. "At higher frequencies, you measure only the surface conductivity Surface conductivity is an additional electric conductivity of fluid in the vicinity of the charged surface. Fluid conductivity is associated with ions motion in electric field. Concentration of ions is higher close to the charged surfaces. . Lower frequencies penetrate into the core." Metallurgists at the U.S. Mint tried many different combinations of alloys and coin constructions, trying to offset the higher conductivity with different metal-layer thicknesses. "They could easily match it for one machine, but it was not universal," Brauer notes. Last May--3 months before manufacturing was to start--the mint was ready to concede and go with an alloy that did not satisfy the electromagnetic requirements. Researchers at Olin Brass, however, had a final brainstorm. They knew of some manganese manganese (măng`gənēs, măn`–) [Lat.,=magnet], metallic chemical element; symbol Mn; at. no. 25; at. wt. 54.938; m.p. about 1,244°C;; b.p. about 1,962°C;; sp. gr. 7.2 to 7. alloys that have low conductivities, but these materials are pink, Brauer says. By adding enough manganese and zinc to copper, the researchers thought they might get a golden alloy with the right electromagnetic properties. The strategy worked. After adding some nickel for tarnish tarnish, n 1. surface discoloration or loss of luster by metals. Under oral conditions, it often results from hard and soft deposits. 2. a chemical process by which a metal surface is discolored or its luster destroyed. resistance, they told the mint about the brand-new material. "I sent them five sample coins, then eventually a 40,000-pound lot, and the rest is history," says Brauer. The final alloy consists of 77 percent copper, 12 percent zinc, 7 percent manganese, and 4 percent nickel. The pure copper core makes up half of the metal in the coin, with the two layers of manganese brass each taking up one-fourth of the thickness. For coins, counterfeiting isn't a big problem--it's more profitable for a crook to print fake twenties and fifties. Vendors do worry, however, about unscrupulous customers feeding slugs See State and local government series. , or fake coins, into their machines. The sandwich design as well as the unique properties of the alloy make slugging For the baseball statistic, see Slugging average. Slugging is the practice of forming ad-hoc, informal carpools for purposes of commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. difficult to carry off. Olin Brass casts the material in 10-ton ingots, then squeezes them between rollers to get them down to the proper thickness. "It's not something you can do in your garage," Brauer notes. Because the new dollar costs only 12 cents to make, Diehl notes, the mint recovers a healthy 88-cent profit on every dollar coin it sells. The Sacagawea dollar will help the U.S. Mint continue to make a lot of money--in more ways than one. In designing the coin, the U.S. Mint took the unprecedented step of soliciting comments from the public. More than 130,000 people sent their ideas via letters, faxes, and electronic messages. In June 1998, a design advisory committee that reviewed the input recommended that the dollar coin honor Sacagawea. The mint then invited 23 artists to submit designs. After consulting representatives of the Native American community, historians, artists, educators, and the public, the mint chose sculptor Glenna Goodacre's design. For the eagle on the coin's reverse side, it chose a design by mint engraver Thomas D. Rogers Thomas D. Rogers is the designer of the reverse side of the United States Golden dollar coin, or Sacagawea dollar. Rogers holds an A.A.S. degree with a major in commercial art, and joined the United States Mint in 1991. Sr. The Sacagawea design is "surprisingly effective," says John M. Kleeberg, curator of modern coins at the American Numismatic Society The American Numismatic Society (or ANS) is a New York City-based organization dedicated to the study of coins and medals. ANS should not be confused with the larger, Colorado Springs-based American Numismatic Association. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . "So much of the stuff produced by the U.S. Mint has been terrible. The modeling of Sacagawea is nicely done, and the pose is an unusual one. We don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what she looked like, but [on the coin] she doesn't look like a cold goddess." Coins with simple designs continue to look good even as they wear down, Kleeberg says. The new golden dollar follows that precept An order, writ, warrant, or process. An order or direction, emanating from authority, to an officer or body of officers, commanding that officer or those officers to do some act within the scope of their powers. Rule imposing a standard of conduct or action. . People seem to be taken with the Sacagawea dollar, Diehl says. "Banks and retailers that never indicated any interest in this coin and had never ordered a single Susan B. Anthony coin wanted it immediately because the American people An American people may be:
People who want to pocket the new dollars can get them a variety of ways. The mint sells the coins on its Web site (http://www.usmint.gov), banks and Wal-Mart stores carry them, and a few lucky breakfast-cereal eaters might find them in boxes of Cheerios. The U.S. Mint predicts that demand for the golden dollar will reach 1 billion coins by the end of the year, more than the Susan B. Anthony could muster in its entire lifetime. And though there's no gold in the circulating dollar coin, collectors will be happy to know that the mint will start making a 22-carat-gold version this summer--for anyone who can come up with considerably more than a buck. The make-up Of Some U.S. coins
Coin Penny Nickel
Obverse Abraham Thomas
Design Lincoln Jefferson
Reverse Lincoln Monticello
Design Memorial
Metal Copper- Copper-
Compo- Plated Zinc Nickel Alloy
sition (97.5% zinc, (75% copper,
2.5% copper) 25% nickel)
Weight 2.5 5.0
(grams)
Diameter 19.05 21.21
(millimeters)
Thickness 1.55 1.95
(millimeters)
Edge Smooth Smooth
Texture
(Number
of Ridges)
Coin Dime Quarter
Obverse Franklin George
Design Roosevelt Washington
Reverse Torch, Eagle or
Design Olive Branch, State-Specific
Oak Branch Designs
Metal Copper- Copper-
Compo- Nickel Clad(*) Nickel Clad(*)
sition (91.67% (91.67%
copper, copper,
8.33% nickel) 8.33% nickel)
Weight 2.268 5.67
(grams)
Diameter 17.91 24.26
(millimeters)
Thickness 1.35 1.75
(millimeters)
Edge Ridged (118) Ridged (119)
Texture
(Number
of Ridges)
Coin Half Dollar SBA Dollar
Obverse John E Susan B
Design Kennedy Anthony
Reverse Presidential Apollo 11
Design Coat of Insignia,
Arms Eagle
Metal Copper- Copper-
Compo- Nickel Clad(*) Nickel Clad(*)
sition (91.67% (87.5%
copper, copper,
8.33% nickel) 12.5% nickel)
Weight 11.34 8.1
(grams)
Diameter 30.61 26.5
(millimeters)
Thickness 2.15 2.0
(millimeters)
Edge Ridged (150) Ridged (133)
Texture
(Number
of Ridges)
Coin Golden Dollar
Obverse Sacagawea
Design
Reverse Eagle
Design
Metal Manganese
Compo- Brass Clad(**)
sition (88.5%
copper, 6.0%
zinc, 3.5%
manganese,
2.0% nickel)
Weight 8.1
(grams)
Diameter 26.5
(millimeters)
Thickness 2.0
(millimeters)
Edge Smooth
Texture
(Number
of Ridges)
(*) A pure copper core sandwiched between two layers of a 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel alloy Noun 1. nickel alloy - an alloy whose main constituent is nickel nickel-base alloy alloy, metal - a mixture containing two or more metallic elements or metallic and nonmetallic elements usually fused together or dissolving into each other when molten; "brass . (**) A pure copper core sandwiched between two layers of manganese brass, which consists of 77 percent copper, 12 percent zinc, 7 percent manganese, and 4 percent nickel. |
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