This week in Philly history: First Susan B. Anthony coins are minted in Philadelphia
On Dec. 13, 1978, at the U.S. Mint at Fifth and Arch Streets, the first coins featuring the suffragette were pressed.
Azie Taylor Morton’s face made the newspapers, and her signature made history.
In 1977, the 41-year-old Texan joined President Jimmy Carter’s administration, serving as the first Black treasurer of the United States. Her signature was added to all paper currency, from $1 to $100.
She was honored, but she admitted to an Associated Press reporter that she expected more responsibilities. To elevate the otherwise ceremonial position into an influential platform. And then she caught the opportunity: She’d like to see, she said, a woman’s face on an American currency.
She even had one in mind: The treasury department wanted to replace the bulky dollar coin featuring former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The department wanted a lighter shape that was easier to carry and friendlier to vending machines.
But the design was already commissioned. It featured an 18th-century depiction of “Libertas Americana.” This mythic goddess-like figure was meant to personify American liberty.
To Morton, the only thing she personified was narrow-mindedness.
“I don’t know that Liberty is a woman who has made a substantial contribution to this country,” she said later.
Several female members of the House of Representatives had her back, and helped push for the visage of a real woman to appear on the $1 circulating coin. But which woman? Hundreds of names were thrown about, including notable first ladies Abigail Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt.
But one name emerged above the others: Susan Brownell Anthony, a suffragette and a 19th-century political icon who helped secure the right to vote for American women.
Dissenters called for more time to research and identify other candidates, but the pro-Anthony politicos made it clear: No Anthony, no coin.
And on Dec. 13, 1978, at the U.S. Mint at Fifth and Arch Streets, the first coins were pressed.
The coin measured slightly larger than a quarter, and featured a right-facing portrait of Anthony on one side, and an American Eagle landing on the moon on its opposite, taken from the Apollo 11 insignia.
Two million silver-colored coins were minted in Philadelphia, each featuring a “P” mint mark to distinguish its origin as more coins were also printed at mints in Denver and San Francisco. In total, 847.5 million were cast.
And while the concept of the coin wasn’t warmly received at first, in time the memento would gain in popularity, sentimentality, and in some cases, value.
In 2000, the Mint released a new, gold-colored dollar coin, featuring Native American Sacagawea, who helped guide Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition. Sacagawea was only the second woman to be featured on a circulating coin in more than 230 years of American coinage.
Back in ’77, Morton was asked about adding a woman’s face to a handbill.
“We really are far from that,” she said, “but it’s a thought.”