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.
The 2023 Native American $1 250-Coin Box is composed of 10 rolls of 25 coins minted at the Philadelphia Mint with circulating finishes that have never been placed into circulation.
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.
Please Note: United States Mint coins are rolled by an automated machine process and not by hand. We cannot guarantee that the obverse (heads) or reverse of a coin will be at either end of a coin roll.