Posts tagged 'susan b anthony dollar'

As the tenth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, Frank Gasparro was one of the most active designers of American currency during his time at the mint. Born August 26, 1909, coincidentally the same year that the Lincoln Cent was first struck, Gasparro was drawn to art and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. As a teen, Gasparro studied under the famous artist Giuseppe Donato, who once was a student of master sculptor Auguste Rodin, known for his iconic sculpture, “The Thinker”.

Released just before America’s 203^rd anniversary of becoming a nation, the Susan B. Anthony Dollar entered circulation on July 2, 1979. While the Eisenhower Dollar had been struck since 1971, its large size made it cumbersome to carry around. A study done by the Treasury Department showed that a smaller dollar coin replacing half of the paper dollars produced could save over $19 million in production costs. With all that in mind, the U.S. Mint went to work.