Who Is on the Dollar Coin — The Active Circulating Dollar (2026)

The active circulating dollar coin in 2026 is the Sacagawea / Native American Dollar. Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone woman born around 1788 who served as an interpreter and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1804 to 1806. She traveled with the Corps of Discovery from the Mandan villages of present-day North Dakota to the Pacific Coast and back, carrying her infant son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau throughout the journey. Her presence on the expedition helped signal peaceful intentions to Native tribes the Corps encountered. The 2026 reverse depicts Polly Cooper, an Oneida woman who carried corn from Oneida country to Valley Forge during the winter of 1777–1778 to feed George Washington's starving Continental Army.

The Sacagawea dollar obverse was designed by sculptor Glenna Goodacre. The model for the portrait was Randy'L He-dow Teton, a Shoshone-Bannock-Cree college student selected from a nationwide search. The original soaring eagle reverse (2000–2008) was designed by Thomas D. Rogers Sr. Beginning in 2009, the reverse changes annually under the Native American Dollar program, with each year's design honoring a specific contribution of Native Americans. The 2026 reverse designer attribution for the Polly Cooper design was pending public confirmation as of the last review date.

Congress authorized the Sacagawea dollar under the United States Dollar Coin Act of 1997 to replace the failed Susan B. Anthony dollar, which had been rejected by the public largely because its silver color caused confusion with the quarter. The Sacagawea dollar launched in January 2000 with a distinctive gold-colored manganese brass alloy — 88.5% copper, 6% zinc, 3.5% manganese, and 2% nickel — designed to be visually distinct from all other circulating coins. In 2009, the Native American Dollar program began rotating the reverse annually to honor Native American contributions to US history and culture.

Sacagawea — Biography of the Dollar Coin's Obverse Subject

Sacagawea was born around 1788 into the Lemhi Shoshone tribe in the region of present-day Idaho. Around 1800, when she was approximately twelve years old, she was captured by a Hidatsa raiding party and taken to their villages near the mouth of the Knife River in present-day North Dakota. She was later acquired — through purchase or gambling — by French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau, whom she married. By the time Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived at the Mandan villages in the fall of 1804 to winter over, Sacagawea was pregnant with her first child.

Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as an interpreter for their westward journey, with the explicit understanding that Sacagawea would accompany the expedition. Her ability to communicate in Shoshone was essential: the Corps needed horses from the Shoshone to cross the Rocky Mountains, and a female interpreter was indispensable for that negotiation. On February 11, 1805, Sacagawea gave birth to Jean Baptiste Charbonneau — called 'Pomp' by Clark — and carried him on her back throughout the entire expedition.

Sacagawea's contributions to the Lewis and Clark Expedition extended beyond translation. She identified edible plants and roots, helped recover supplies when a pirogue capsized on the Missouri River in May 1805, and served as a living symbol of peaceful intent to tribes the Corps encountered along the route. Clark later wrote that her presence 'reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions.' In a remarkable coincidence, the Shoshone chief from whom the Corps obtained horses turned out to be Sacagawea's own brother, Cameahwait.

The exact date and circumstances of Sacagawea's death remain disputed. One account, based on a journal entry by fur trader John Luttig, records that a 'Snake squaw' died at Fort Manuel in present-day South Dakota on December 20, 1812 — widely interpreted to refer to Sacagawea. A competing oral tradition among the Shoshone holds that she lived until approximately 1884 and died on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Historians have not reached consensus. Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, her son, was educated in Europe under Clark's patronage and later became a fur trapper and guide; he died in 1866.

Sacagawea became a prominent figure in American commemorative culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Statues were erected in her honor across the western United States, and she was celebrated as a symbol of female exploration and Native American contribution. The selection of Sacagawea for the dollar coin in 2000 was the result of a national competition; her image replaced Susan B. Anthony, whose silver-colored coin had failed in circulation. The 2026 Native American Dollar reverse carries forward the program's mission by honoring Polly Cooper of the Oneida tribe, whose corn-carrying journey to Valley Forge in 1777–1778 is depicted on the coin's reverse.

Dollar Coin Design History — All 13 Types in Chronological Order

The US dollar coin has changed design more than any other denomination. Thirteen distinct types span 230 years, with shifts driven by artistic taste, economic policy, silver coinage acts, WWII metal conservation, failed circulation experiments, and commemorative legislation.

Mint Mark History — US Dollar Coins

Mint marks on dollar coins follow the general US Mint placement conventions but vary by type and era. On vintage Morgan dollars (1878–1921), the mint mark appears on the reverse centered below the eagle's tail feathers, above the letters 'D' and 'O' of 'DOLLAR.' The five mints that struck Morgan dollars were Philadelphia (no mark), New Orleans (O), San Francisco (S), Carson City (CC), and Denver (D). On Peace dollars (1921–1935), the mint mark moves to the reverse below the eagle, to the left of the 'ONE DOLLAR' inscription. On Eisenhower dollars, the mint mark is on the obverse above the date.

The small-format dollar program introduced a structural change: Sacagawea, Presidential, and Innovation dollars carry the date and mint mark on the coin's edge — not the face — alongside the national motto 'E PLURIBUS UNUM' and 'IN GOD WE TRUST.' This edge-lettering convention was applied to all Presidential Dollars beginning 2007, leading to one of the program's most famous error varieties: 2007-P Washington and Adams dollars struck without edge lettering, known as 'Godless dollars,' which traded at strong premiums among collectors.

The modern Morgan and Peace revival (2021–present) uses a distinct mint mark scheme. Coins struck at Philadelphia carry the 'P' mark; San Francisco coins carry 'S' for Proof and Reverse Proof; Denver struck the 2021-D (the only Denver modern Morgan, at 175,000). Unusually, Carson City (CC) and New Orleans (O) privy marks appear on 2021 coins despite both mints having been closed for decades — these are Philadelphia strikes bearing the privy mark as a tribute. The 2022 production gap (no coins struck) resulted from a silver-blank shortage.

Who Is on the Dollar Coin? Thirteen Distinct Types

The US Mint has issued 13 distinct dollar coin types since 1794. The question 'who is on the dollar coin' has a different answer depending on which coin is in your hand — a Morgan dollar shows George T. Morgan's Liberty; a Presidential dollar shows one of 39 different presidents; a Sacagawea dollar shows the Lemhi Shoshone interpreter with her infant son. The fastest diagnostic is size: large (38.1 mm) versus small (26.5 mm), then color (silver versus gold), then portrait.

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