1999 Susan B. Anthony Dollars 1979 to Date MS66

History

When 1999 began the Anthony dollar had not been struck for eighteen years, production having been halted by the Treasury Department in 1981 after three years of coinage. The legislation that authorized its replacement, signed December 1, 1997 as part of the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act, called for a dollar golden in color with a distinctive edge, and it also allowed the Secretary of the Treasury to reprise the Anthony dollar if dollar coins were needed before the new piece could enter production. That is exactly what happened. Transit systems and vending machines handling higher-cost transactions such as books of postage had drawn down vault reserves that once ran into the hundreds of millions, and on May 20, 1999 the Mint announced it would strike 1999-dated Anthony dollars to keep dollar coins available until the new coin arrived in 2000. Philadelphia and Denver handled the work; San Francisco, which had struck circulation and proof Anthony dollars from 1979 through 1981, took no part.

Details

Frank Gasparro designed both sides, the reverse adapted in 1971 from the Apollo 11 mission insignia. The coin is copper-nickel clad.75 copper and .25 nickel bonded to a pure copper core, weighing 8.1 grams and measuring 26.5 mm across and 2.00 mm thick, with a reeded edge that the Mint itself cited when describing how the forthcoming Sacagawea dollar would differ. Philadelphia struck 29,592,000 business strikes in 1999, alongside Denver's 11,776,000. A Philadelphia proof was also produced that year, with a maximum of 750,000 pieces, making 1999 the only year of the series with a proof dollar from that facility.

Features

The obverse carries a right-facing profile of Susan B. Anthony with LIBERTY above, the date below and IN GOD WE TRUST at the right, all set within an eleven-sided inner border on a round planchet, a compromise reached after other shapes and compositions were tested and met opposition from the vending machine industry. The reverse shows an eagle clutching a laurel branch above a lunar landscape, the same Apollo 11 device carried over from the Eisenhower dollar, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA above, ONE DOLLAR below and E PLURIBUS UNUM in the field. Standard variety listings for the series recognize only three entries, the 1979-P Wide Rim, the 1979-S Type 2 proof and the 1981-S Type 2 proof, and nothing dated 1999 appears among them. The practical authentication concern for the issue is condition rather than deception, since cleaned or poorly stored pieces turn up far more often than anything else.

Notable facts

• Uncirculated 1999-P dollars are readily available, but the grade becomes somewhat scarce at MS67, where PCGS estimates survivors probably number in the thousands.
• In MS68 the issue is nearly absent from the market, with fewer than a few dozen certified by PCGS and none graded finer.
• The combined 1999 output of roughly 42 million coins from the two mints exceeded the entire 1981 circulation production for the series.
• Philadelphia's 1999 total of more than 29 million compares with about 3 million Anthony dollars struck there in 1981.
• The 1999 coins were the final Susan B. Anthony dollars produced, with the Sacagawea dollar taking over the denomination in 2000.