WASHINGTON — A plan to raise interest in the Gold Dollar coin featuring Sacagawea has been stamped with Congress' approval, but the Santa Fe artist who helped make the original thinks it's "silly."
Under a new law, the U.S. Mint will start reissuing the coin featuring Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who guided Lewis and Clark, in 2009. On the coin's reverse side, the mint will replace a soaring American eagle with depictions of other famous American Indians or American Indian events.
The Treasury Department has yet to pick the designs, but some suggestions in the law include a World War II Navajo Code Talker, Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, whose leader, Pop‚, already has a statue in the Capitol.
To the bill's sponsors, changing the design is a way for the Sacagawea coin, which hasn't been minted for general circulation since 2002, to compete for interest with a new series of dollar coins featuring American presidents.
But Glenna Goodacre, the Santa Fe artist who drew the design for the Sacagawea coin using a University of New Mexico student as the model, says, "That's a silly idea."
Goodacre, 67, who is recovering from a brain hemorrhage suffered last March, said in a statement from her Santa Fe studio that the eagle design by former Mint artist Tom Rogers is "beautiful and complements the obverse perfectly."
Rogers, 60, who now has his own sculpting business in Beatty, Ore., said about the new plan, "I'm not thrilled about it, obviously."
But in a column for
Coin World, he said that instead of being bitter, "I choose to celebrate the experience of creating the coin with Glenna."
The Gold Dollar was authorized in 1997 by Congress following disappointment with the silver
Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. Its color was meant to distinguish the dollar coin from new quarters.
Rogers said 123 designs were submitted for either side of the coin.
Goodacre's business manager, Daniel Anthony, recalled they had very little time to submit a design. Since no portrait of Sacagawea exists, they turned to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe where a Shoshone employee suggested her daughter, Randy'L He-dow Teton, then a student at UNM.
Rogers said the eagle in his design symbolized freedom and the spirit of American exploration. His original drawing also featured mountains and the Salmon River.
The Treasury Department dropped the river and the mountains, but kept a soaring eagle and 17 stars, around the edge, representing the 17 states in the Union at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06.)
The first Sacagawea coin was issued in 2000, but Americans didn't show much interest, and there is a surplus of about 100 million coins, issued now for collectors. The Mint this year has produced 768 million of the Washington, Adams and Jefferson dollars.
Alarmed that the Sacagawea coin would be completely overshadowed, Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and Rep. Dale Kildee, a Michigan Democrat who leads the Congressional Native American Caucus, introduced legislation to require that one out of every five dollar coins be the redesigned Sacagawea coin starting in 2009.
"The coin will preserve the memory of Sacagawea and guide Americans through the journey and experiences of Native Americans," Kildee said.
President Bush signed the bill into law Sept. 20.
U.S. Mint spokesman Michael White said work on developing a design has not started yet. The law specifies that the Treasury Department will consult with the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, the Native American Caucus, the National Congress of American Indians and the Commission of Fine Arts on the design.
Besides the Pueblo Revolt, Code Talkers and Thorpe, the bill suggested depictions of the creation of the Cherokee written language, the Iroquois Confederacy, Wampanoag Chief Massasoit and Ely Parker, a general on the staff of Ulysses S. Grant.
Business manager Anthony wondered how they could tell "heads from tails" if they use another face.
The law says an individual on the obverse side shall not be depicted in a size that the coin could be considered a two-headed coin.
The presidents' series is set to continue at four new coins a year through 2016, ending with the 38th President, the late Gerald Ford. (By law, no living person can be depicted on U.S. currency.)
If the Treasury Department chooses to rotate as many as 10 scenes on the Sacagawea coin, in a decade as many as 50 different dollar coins could be in circulation, Rogers noted.
"I'm not sure that the American people really know what's going on," Rogers said.
At Goodacre's studio, Anthony said, "We don't understand this stuff. A lot of people love the (original) coin. It is a very successful coin. People collect them in the millions and millions."
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/se...awea-coin-s/
Posted 04/04/2008 8:17 pm
