Who is Collecting Manganese, Really?
Not too many of us collect coins by metal, other than silver or gold perhaps. It’s hard to find someone who collects any series because it is made of zinc. Likewise, it’s difficult to find someone who collects coins simply because they are made of iron. As well, it’s pretty tough to find a collector devoted to aluminum. Thus, it’s probably impossible to find someone who goes for coins because they have manganese in their alloys, although when it comes to this metal, the U.S. seems to lead the way in terms of its use. In short, all of these thrusts related to specific metals might qualify as pretty far beyond the mainstream. As to the comment about manganese, a little clarification might be in order – so here is what we mean.
Sacagawea Dollars
Over two decades ago now, the United States Mint released the Sacagawea dollar, and proclaimed it to be a brand spankin’ new alloy for U.S. coins, one that included manganese as part of its composition. For those of us who dug into this in some detail, we found that each coin was actually a sandwich, as it were. The center is copper, plain, pure, and simple. The outer two layers are 77 percent copper, 12 percent zinc, 4 percent nickel, and 7 percent manganese. There was some mumbling and grumbling among the collector community that this was not really some new and improved alloy designed to be more resistant to wear and tear over time, but rather one that satisfied the vending machine industry and its machines that checked not only mass but electrical resistivity when coins were inserted. Overall though, the coins were pretty well accepted, since the design was a good one, and the look was indeed novel.
Like several classic United States coin series, the “Sac” dollars – a nickname they picked up quickly – started with a production bang and after a couple of years slowed to a production trickle. In the year 2000, the folks at the main facility in Philadelphia pounded out a raging torrent of more than 767 million of these new dollars, the folks in Denver coughed up almost 519 million more, and the San Francisco branch ponied up just over 4 million proofs. By any stretch, that’s a lot of dollars and quite a bit of manganese. But the next year saw the numbers plummet, and by 2002 all three mints together only hammered out a bit under 10 million. By 2008, when the winds of change were again blowing, the annual numbers had never really ever gotten much higher than that 2002 annual tally.
Presidential Dollars
In 2007, the Mint released the Washington golden dollar as the first of four Presidential dollars, again with the same composition as the Sacagawea dollars – which meant that there was manganese in these coins as well. Having learned a bit from the past, and how the Sac dollars didn’t really circulate much, the federal government launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign about the Presidential dollars, somehow determining it was worth millions of dollars to get us each to spend at least one. All things considered, it didn’t work. The numbers of Presidential dollars made in 2007 were in the hundreds of millions, but by 2012 only one of these dollars saw a mintage tally of just over 10 million coins – the 2012-P Grover Cleveland dollar. By the time this series petered out, production tallies were roughly as low as those of the Sacagawea dollars.
Native American Dollars
In a brilliant attempt to defy the odds and heroically not admit defeat, in 2009 the Sacagawea dollars became the Native
American dollars, with some pretty amazing designs on the reverses, and the young Sacagawea still looking out at us from the obverse. The composition was still the same, meaning that once again there is manganese in this newer set of golden dollars, or at least in the outer layers of the sandwich alloy. And in 2009, this series started out with ... oh, really, do we have to say it? Once again, we had a series of golden dollars that started out great, and that evolved – or perhaps “devolved” is the better word – to some extremely lean mintages. Yes, it’s a neat collection to assemble, and yes, there are some truly excellent designs within this series. An enormous “hurrah” goes to the people of Alaska, who are actually using the dollar that honors Elizabeth Peratrovich and the Anti-Discrimination Law of Alaska. But beyond this, no, not many people are going to see them on a day-to-day basis.
American Innovation Dollars
More recently, in 2018, yet another series of golden dollars have been brought into existence, the American Innovation dollars. The Mint does what Congress mandates; and it seems that in the case of this newest series of dollars, manganese still included, the two have been speaking to each other. We say this because these newest dollars are only being made for sales to the collector community, and can only be purchased in special sets. None are being made for circulation among the general public. Accordingly, the production numbers have started out rather modestly.
Overall
When we add it all up, it looks like the United States Mint is not only the world leader when it comes to utilizing manganese in some form of coinage, but it is also slugging away a bit like a prize fighter who simply won’t give up. It doesn’t matter whether any of the different types of golden dollars are floating about in circulation or not. It doesn’t matter that most of us will have to do some serious hunting it we wish to find any of these coins beyond the first Sacagawea dollar, or the Washington presidential dollar. These four series of manganese-containing golden dollars are out there – and in one case are still being produced. However much this is beyond the mainstream, there are some fun collecting possibilities here, right in front of us.