Reception
The coin received mixed reviews from the nation's senators. In an interview with Associated Press columnist Suzanne Gamboa, Republican Senator Phil Gramm of Texas described United States currency as "crummy". Gramm, who was one of the senators who voted for the bill containing the legislation that authorized it, praised the design of the Sacagawea dollar as being an improvement over the other coin designs then in production. Despite his praise of the design, Gramm condemned the Mint's approach to marketing the coin, stating that if the United States Mint were the Franklin Mint, they would be "sued for deceptive advertisement." He also noted his belief that the Mint had repeated the earlier mistakes of the Susan B. Anthony dollar by issuing a coin that was tailored to the requests of the vending machine industry rather than the average consumer. Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison criticized both the Sacagawea design as well the coin's size in relation to the other coins in circulation at the time. Hutchison felt that the new coin lacked the necessary heft to easily distinguish it from the lower denominations, and that the dollar, as well as the other coins and currency then in circulation "looks like play money." Senators Mike DeWine of Ohio and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Republican and Democrat respectively, praised the design and the distinctiveness of the golden color.
The series proved unpopular in everyday commerce. Mintage dropped by 90% the following year. From 2002 through 2008, Sacagawea dollars were only struck for sale to collectors. The Federal Reserve Bank ordered none of the Native American series after their issuance beginning in 2009. In December 2009, it was noted by a Federal Reserve official that there were currently 857,000,000-dollar coins (including Presidential dollars) in government storage vaults, an amount estimated to satisfy the demand for twelve years.
Despite their unpopularity in the United States, the coins proved popular for commerce in El Salvador and Ecuador, nations that use the United States dollar.
Read more about this topic: Sacagawea Dollar
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