2009-D Native American Dollar : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

By 2002, the Treasury Department was all too aware that, despite a promising launch and a pleasing modern appearance, the Sacagawea Dollar had failed to deliver on its hopes of widespread adoption by the American public. Instead, more than 200 million coins of the cursed denomination sat unused in massive bags in government vaults. While the Sac Dollar suffered the same fate as the Susan B. Anthony and Eisenhower Dollar series that preceded it, different factors contributed to its failure.

The Ike Dollar suffered, in part, due to the coin’s large size. Although the copper-nickel-clad version was the only one released into circulation, the coin’s size was based on the silver dollar. Resurrecting the dormant dollar coin but not addressing the coin’s cumbersome size and weight proved limiting. Some accounts suggest that the coin saw some usage in the sparsely-populated western states and casinos, but wear patterns on Philadelphia Mint issues suggest to us that the coin saw heavier circulation than most realize, especially the 1971 and 1972 issues and the 1975-1976 Bicentennial coins. Even if the coin was seen as little more than a novelty, its large size made it ideal for the manufacturing novelty belt buckles.

By the time the Bicentennial Dollars came around, Congress and the Treasury were already contemplating the introduction of a new dollar coin, this one smaller and easier to handle in quantity. The goal of the proponents of the small dollar coin was to see daily use in vending machines; in fact, the vending industry strongly advocated for the coin in Congressional hearings in 1978. When the Susan B. Anthony Dollar was released in 1979, it was the subject of almost immediate scorn and ridicule. The promised refitting of vending machines did not happen on a large scale, and the coin was killed off at the end of the first year of the Reagan Administration.

More so than size or public scorn, the true reason behind the failure of these late 20th-century attempts to reintroduce the dollar coin was the fact that such a piece would always be overshadowed by the one-dollar Federal Reserve Note. If in the age of silver and gold coins, people still frequently used banknotes and currency, it only stands to reason that the same would hold true in an era of fiat coinage.

Congress and dollar coin proponents ignored this truth and instead blamed the SBA Dollar’s failure on its conception and design. The Susan B. Anthony, while slightly larger and thicker than a quarter, is more similar to that denomination than any other coin is to any other denomination. For the Sacagawea Dollar, Congress hoped that changing the composition and other design characteristics would make the coin more easily distinguishable. The United States Mint even promoted the new coin with a $67 million marketing campaign. This effort led to $968 million in seignorage for the Mint, but the coin did not see widespread use after its launch.

Rebooting the Sacagawea Dollar

Dollar coin proponents were not done. Knowing that $1 in 2000 had the same purchasing power as 40¢ in 1979, the dollar coin was seen by some as less wasteful than the dollar bill. In 2007, Congress once again enacted legislation to reintroduce the coin, this time with a circulating commemorative program to honor America’s Presidents. This terrible idea played out year after year, with the Mint honoring America’s most incompetent Chief Executives alongside household names. What school kid wouldn’t be wowed by the opportunity of holding the history of Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, or Warren G. Harding in their hands?

The Presidential $1 Coin Act did not end the production of the Sacagawea Dollar, however. Instead, it carved out 20% of annual dollar-coin production for that design. On September 20, 2007, President George W. Bush enacted Public Law 110–82 (PDF link), the Native American $1 Coin Act, which updated the Sacagawea Dollar by authorizing a new annual refresh of the reverse to honor the many contributions of Native Americans to American life. On the Native American Dollar, sculptor Glenna Goodacre’s obverse design remained but the date and mintmark were moved to the rim. From this point on, the Sacagawea Dollar is officially known as the “Native American Dollar”.

The first reverse design in the program honors the Three Sisters of Native American agriculture: the planting of maize (corn), beans, and squash in close proximity for mutual benefit. The cornstalks provide a structure for the bean tendrils to climb, and the broad leaves of the squash plants trap moisture at the base and help prevent weeds from crowding out the crops. The beans also fix nitrogen in the soil, providing nutrients for all. This method of planting increases crop yields by about 30% and probably dates to the domestication of corn in Mexico around 9,000 years ago.

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Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

As is the case with most ultramodern issues, the value of the 2009-D Native American Dollar is too low to justify paying third-party coin-grading companies to certify the coin – a concept covered by what we refer to as “Terminal Point“. As a result, most submissions occurred within the coin’s immediate launch window, with submitters getting bulk discount pricing on their grading fees. Based on the published certification data, we can make a few inferences.

It appears that the 2009-D Native American Dollar is more difficult to acquire in MS68 than the 2009-P. Differences in the way the coins were handled post-strike are the most likely cause of this disparity. The grading services also received fewer 2009-D Native American Dollars than 2009-Ps.

Raw coins make up the majority of all of the coins that you will see offered for sale of this issue. These sell daily for about $3 to $5 on sites like eBay.

It will be interesting to see how the Sacagawea and Native American Dollars fare in the years to come. The metal is susceptible to toning (like the cent), and over time, we suspect that fresh-looking coins will become less available. Also, the Sacagawea design is the best of any golden dollar coin yet conceived. On that basis alone, it is an interesting type.

Top Population: PCGS MS67 (242*, 1/2025), NGC MS68 (1, 1/2025), and CAC N/A (1/2025).

*The PCGS population data combines coins the grading service has designated Position A and Position B. While an explanation is offered in the Design section below, we have not observed collectors paying a distinct premium for one or the other and ignore it here.

• PCGS MS66: eBay, November 2, 2024 – $12.95.

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2009-D Native American Dollar Design

Obverse:

Per Treasury Department guidelines, the obverse design of the small golden dollar portrays Sacagawea, a member of the Lemhi Shoshone tribe who acted as the guide for the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805-6. While her bust is facing right in a classic three-quarter profile, Sacagawea looks directly at the viewer and carries her infant son Jean-Baptiste on her back. Since the design guidelines requested that all submissions “be sensitive to cultural authenticity and try to avoid creating a representation of a classical European face in Native American headdress,” Sacagawea is depicted in a naturalistic style. Designer Glenna Goodacre used a modern-day Shoshone woman named Randy’L He-dow Teton as her model.

Above Sacagawea’s head is the word LIBERTY; in the left-hand field is the motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The designer’s initials (G.G) can be seen on the infant’s swaddling cloth at the bottom of the design.

Reverse:

Dressed in a long fringed dress and moccasins, a Native American woman plants seeds next to three tall corn stalks. Bean tendrils have begun to climb up the stalks, and squash gourds are present at their bases. Wrapping clockwise around the top of the central design is the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA in a stylized font. The denomination $1 is at the bottom. The initials NEN for reverse designer Norman E. Nemeth are below the second and third corn stalks.

Edge:

The incuse inscriptions on the edge of the 2009-D Native American Dollar include the date 2009, the D mintmark for Denver, and the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM.

On some edges, the inscriptions are upside-down when looking at the obverse from above; PCGS designates this lettering style as “Position A”. It follows that PCGS designates those dollars where the edge lettering is right side up as “Position B”.

Designers

The Sacagawea obverse was designed by sculptor Glenna Goodacre. When Goodacre passed away at the age of 80 in 2020, she was widely acknowledged as a highly skilled artist. Before her 1999 design for the Sacagawea dollar, Goodacre was known for creating the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and the Irish Memorial in Philadelphia.

Sculptor-Engraver Norman E. Nemeth worked at the Franklin Mint for over a decade before taking a position at the United States Mint.

2009-D Native American Dollar Coin Specifications

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