PLYMOUTH, Mass. — B. B. Craig, United States Mint Associate Director of Sales and Marketing, and leaders of the Wampanoag Tribe introduced the 2011 Native American $1 Coin today during a ceremony at the Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts.
“The 2011 Native American $1 Coin celebrates the Wampanoag Treaty of 1621 that later led the English colonists and Massosoit and his men to join in a first harvest feast,” said Craig.
Other speakers at the event included Cheryl Andrews–Maltais, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head; Cedric Cromwell, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe; and Jim Adams, senior historian of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Those who attended the ceremony were among the first in the Nation to get the 2011 Native American $1 Coin. Adults exchanged their cash for the 2011 Native American $1 Coin following the event, while those 18 years old and younger received a newly minted coin to commemorate the event.
The United States Mint began minting and issuing the Native American $1 Coin in 2009, as required by Public Law 110–82, the “Native American $1 Coin Act.” Each $1 coin issued in the program will feature a design celebrating the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the history and development of the United States.
The reverse (tails side) of the 2011 coin depicts hands of the Supreme Sachem Ousamequin Massasoit and Governor John Carver symbolically offering the ceremonial peace pipe after the initiation of the first formal written peace alliance between the Wampanoag tribe and European settlers. Inscriptions are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, $1 and WAMPANOAG TREATY 1621.
The reverse was designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program Master Designer Richard Masters and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor–Engraver Joseph Menna. The coin’s obverse (heads side) design continues to feature the familiar “Sacagawea” design by sculptor Glenna Goodacre. Inscriptions are LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. Like the Presidential $1 Coins, the Native American $1 Coins are minted in the distinctive golden color with the year, mint mark and E PLURIBUS UNUM edge–incused.
The United States Mint, created by Congress in 1792, is the Nation’s sole manufacturer of legal tender coinage and is responsible for producing circulating coinage for the Nation to conduct its trade and commerce. The United States Mint also produces proof, uncirculated and commemorative coins; Congressional Gold Medals; and silver, gold and platinum bullion coins.