The newest release from the United States Mint highlights American ingenuity. Today at noon ET, rolls and bags of the 2023 Louisiana American Innovation Dollars debut.
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Each new $1 coin features a design on the reverse (tails side) depicting a military landing craft called the Higgins Boat. The boat was designed and constructed in New Orleans, with 23,000 of them produced for use by the military in World War II to help ensure an Allied victory.
Product options for the dollar include 25-coin rolls or 100-coin bags struck by the Philadelphia or Denver Mint.
Design for the Louisiana Innovation Dollar
U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program Artist Dennis Friel designed the image of the Higgins Boat on the reverse of each new dollar coin, which depicts the landing craft with its ramp deployed on the beach as it would have appeared during military action. U.S. Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw executed the design’s sculpting. The inscriptions around the design read: "UNITED STATES of AMERICA," "THE HIGGINS BOAT," and "LOUISIANA."
Obverses (heads side) of every dollar in the series feature the same rendition of the Statue of Liberty, along with inscriptions of "IN GOD WE TRUST" and "$1," as well as a privy mark of a stylized gear that represents industry and innovation. The design of the gear changes slightly every year. AIP Designer Justin Kunz created the design of Liberty, which was then sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill for use on coins.
In addition, edges of the coins are incused with the year "2023," the mint mark, and "E PLURIBUS UNUM."
American Innovation Coin Program
The Mint’s American Innovation® $1 Coin Program debuted in 2018 with a single release. The multi-year series features four unique designs annually, each honoring American ingenuity with a link to each state, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories.
The four dollars for 2023 include:
- Ohio $1 Coin – Underground Railroad
- Louisiana $1 Coin – Higgins Boat (this release)
- Indiana $1 Coin – Automobile industry
- Mississippi $1 Coin – First human lung transplant
This series will conclude in 2032 at which time a total of fifty-seven new strikes will have been issued.
Ordering
The U.S. Mint’s online store for American Innovation products is the place to go to order the new dollar coins. A roll of 25 coins costs $34.50, while a bag of 100 coins is sold for $117.50.
For the first 24 hours of sales, the Mint limits orders to 10 items of each product per household.
This happened the last time an item was released, either no sales (which seems unlikely) or no update by the mint. Probably tomorrow morning you will get an accurate value. It is too bad things don’t seem to be updating. As a side note, yesterday the available under subscription was over 300 (at least for Philadelphia), so to get to the 1135 available today things went up around 800, or roughly 10% of the total mintage. this seems to confirm the idea that 90% are made available under subscription and 10% are held for the day of release
I did get a Bessie Coleman in change today. Small die chip on letter A of Coleman, but then any of these quarters seem to have different die chips
Too bad it wasn’t the Indian gold coin, you could have had Buffalo chips
Personally the Higgins boat was a fine design, the PT Boat, but I do not go for war and the opening of this gate on the barge makes me think of images of soldiers of European decent running for their lives, getting shot as the door opened, others swimming and getting shot dead floating in the water. Compare that to the Lafitte Skiff that’s fast and so common, or the pirouette used to trap, fish and hunt the Atchafalaya Basin. How about a Lafitte Skiff that’s very common in Louisiana and is what many folks have used to make a… Read more »
Bert, I surmise that our beloved Military Industrial Complex is now adding states coin designs to its charge. You sound very knowledgeable about life in the great State of Louisiana and I’d also prefer to see the Brown Pelican on the coin..couldn’t the mosquito also be added?