Why is Susan B. Anthony's face on the dollar coin?

Answer 1

When the Mint first proposed a small-size $1 coin it was planned to use a modernized image of Miss Liberty, to continue the tradition of having her picture on larger-denomination coins. In addition the coin was supposed to have 11 smooth sides so that it would be easily recognized by touch as well as sight.

The 1970s were a time when many women were protesting what was still a significant lack of equality in many areas of their lives. When mock-ups of the new design were first shown some groups felt that because all other US Coins depicted actual persons ("dead presidents"), the new dollar should depict a historical woman who had been important in the equal-rights movement, instead of another allegorical image.

They successfully lobbied Congress to order a different design, but there was a lot of controversy over who should be chosen. As the deadline for producing the new coins approached, opinion finally coalesced around Susan B. Anthony in honor of her fight for the right to vote and other things we take for granted today.

Why did the coin fail?Unfortunately the short time frame for a new design combined with bureaucratic bungling doomed the coin to failure. Choice of the coin's basic characteristics (size, weight, and composition) were contracted out to a private design firm that had no experience with coins. They chose the same metal composition as dimes, quarters, and half dollars to save on production costs, and chose the coin's size and weight so that it could not be substituted by any common but lower-value foreign coins then in use. Incredibly, while making those tests the firm forgot to compare the coin's size with any AMERICAN coins, and the size and weight finally chosen were almost the same as the quarter!

Then the Mint and the vending machine industry protested that they couldn't manufacture or process a multi-sided coin, despite the fact that many other countries had been doing so for decades. The Mint opted to use a reeded edge like that on all other coins except nickels and cents, guaranteeing that the new coin wouldn't be identifiable by touch.

Finally, the delay in selecting Ms. Anthony meant that the Mint's chief engraver Frank Gasparro had only a short time to select an image, prepare models, and verify that dies could be made that would properly strike large quantities of the new coins. The only image that worked was based on a particularly unflattering portrait of the arguably severe-looking Ms. Anthony.

The combined result was a coin that was easily confused with a quarter when mixed in with other change, and was considered by both coin experts and the general public to be one of the most unpleasant designs in memory. Production for circulation lasted only 2 years, with a short run made again in 1999 to meet the needs of transit systems in advance of the new "golden" dollars. But the bad taste left by the SBA dollar has made it very difficult for any new dollar coin, no matter how distinctive, to succeed.