The Native American $1 Coin Program was established to honor and recognize the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the history and development of the United States.
For 2023, the obverse (heads) design continues to feature a portrait of the central figure of Sacagawea, carrying her infant son, Jean-Baptiste. Inscriptions are “LIBERTY” and “IN GOD WE TRUST.” The coins continue to retain their distinctive edge lettering and golden color.
The Sacagawea Golden Dollar (now referred to as the Native American $1 Coin) was first released in 2000 and has had a changing reverse (tails) design since 2009 with an image emblematic of one important Native American or Native American contribution.
The 2023 reverse design features Maria Tallchief in balletic pose. Tallchief was America’s first prima ballerina, and she and her husband, George Balanchine, transformed American classical ballet. In addition to Tallchief, four other American Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma achieved international recognition in the 20th century, including her younger sister Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, and Moscelyne Larkin. Celebrated as the “Five Moons,” their legacy of achievement and inclusion continues to influence ballet today. A nod to the Five Moons is presented in the lunar motif, while the four ballerinas in the background are symbolic of both Tallchief’s American Indian ballerina contemporaries and the generations of dancers they inspired. Inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “MARIA TALLCHIEF,” “$1,” and “AMERICAN INDIANS IN BALLET.”
The year of minting, mint mark, and inscription “E PLURIBUS UNUM” are incused on the edge of the coins.
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- The Native American $1 Coin program honors and recognizes the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans.
- The 2023 Native American $1 Coin obverse (heads) design retains a portrait of Sacagawea carrying her infant son, Jean-Baptiste.
- The reverse (tails) design features Maria Tallchief and four additional dancers in balletic pose.
- The coins—minted at the Denver & Philadelphia Mint—have circulating finishes but have never been placed into circulation.
