American tourists often return from abroad with an assortment of foreign "pocket change" they failed to dispose of during their trip. But much to the surprise of the 100 passengers aboard the luxury, all-suite cruise ship Galapagos Explorer II, the "foreign" coins several could be returning home from Ecuador with are the much-heralded, but rarely circulated in the United States, Sacagawea dollar coin.
While on a recent business trip to Ecuador that included a cruise and exploration of various of the 60 islands in Darwin's fabled Galapagos archipelago, I frequently found myself explaining the reason why passengers were receiving the U.S. dollar coin in change from the ship's gift shop and later on the mainland from vendors in Guayaquil and Quito. Most people I spoke with were unaware that in September 2000, U.S. currency officially became legal tender throughout Ecuador in an effort to stabilize the South American nation's shaky economy and rampant inflation of the up-till-then monetary unit, the sucre.
During shore excursions that landed on beaches amid hundreds of unconcerned, sunbathing sea lions and on trails laden with harmless, fearless, three-feet long iguana which one had to step over to get by, I proffered to fellow passengers that commencing on April 15, the United States began sending some $500 million of the dollar coins to Ecuador for use as circulating currency. And, based on my experience, circulating they are.
Those of us in the hobby know these coins made their debut here in 2000 amid much fanfare, advertising and expensive, persistent, public relations hype, and that 1.3 billion golden-colored dollar coins were minted during the first two years. Some 800 million were distributed to banks nationwide and earmarked to enter circulation. Though many people put one, or a few, aside as keepsakes or for posterity, the simple truth is the dollar coins are not being used for their intended purpose: circulating currency that would have a much longer life expectancy than the average 22 months of U.S. paper dollar, and therefore be more economical.
In fact, it became such a rare occurrence to receive the dollar coin in change that a handful of numismatists and advocates of the coin began sending proud letters to coin hobby publications to announce their "finds." Detractors quickly compared the "Sac dollar" to the ill-fated and equally undesirable, limited lifespan of the Anthony dollar some two decades earlier. Since the U.S. Mint has millions of the new, surprisingly unwanted coins cluttering up vaults, Mint officials have stopped production of 2002 Sacagawea dollars for circulation and have transferred the 4.7 million coins that had been struck to the Mint's numismatics division for sale to collectors.
Enter Ecuador. For some reason Ecuadorians are wont to crumple paper money before stuffing it into their pockets. They did it with their sucre notes and now do it with American paper money. One thought is the crumpled bill is less likely to be accidentally lifted out of a pocket and lost than is a neatly folded bill. This crumpling, time after time, shortens the life of U.S. Federal Reserve notes to six months, or nearly one-quarter its U.S. life expectancy.
I told my fellow passengers on the Galapagos Explorer II the appearance of an expected $500-million Sacagawea dollars in Ecuador actually solves two problems: First, it greatly reduces the printing, labor and shipping costs of producing additional Federal Reserve notes for Ecuador every six months. Second, the Mint has found something to do with the thousands of tons of dollar coins the American public apparently really didn't want in the first place. Ironically, there have been surveys in Ecuador suggesting a majority of the population wanted the dollar coin. However, there are also grumblings that a pocket full of dollar coins will be heavy and the coins will eventually rip through pockets.
"I like the American dollar coin very much," noted Monica Martinez, general manager of Asiri, a Quito-based tour and sightseeing operator. "I hated touching those dirty dollar bills and sucre notes, and most people I know feel the same way. The coins seem cleaner than paper money, but who knows if they really are?"
She added that many people receiving or seeing a Sacagawea dollar for the first time think the obverse depicts an Ecuadorian Indian woman. "I thought that. I really did. The likeness is striking. She could be a woman from the mountains selling hand woven rugs or artistic clay pots to tourists. Some people thought it was very nice for the U.S. to put an Ecuadorian Indian woman on these American coins they made especially for us!"
Janos Nagy, a naturalist researcher from Hungry, didn't have a problem recognizing Sacagawea. "Oh, I knew it was the American dollar coin all right. My son collects coins from all over the world and I remember he paid considerably to get these new dollars when they first appeared.
"Now I can bring home several of them for him. They are all over the place here," he noted during the ship's call at San Cristobal, one of the few populated Galapagos Islands, replete with souvenir and trinket shops.
The Sacagawea dollar frequently worked its way into conversations on the lovely ship at dinner or in the piano lounge afterwards. I pointed out that the coin has been controversial from the outset and there are many people who are not enthusiastic about another go-round with a U.S. dollar coin for a number of practical, design, artistic, numismatic and logical reasons they believe are working against the coin being successful. I confessed that I personally hold strong reservations about the coin for many of the same reasons and consider the Sacagawea dollar, like the short three-year run of the Anthony dollars two decades earlier, another of the Mint's metallic mistakes.
My non-numismatic listeners had no idea that the United States had produced a 20-cent coin so similar in size and design to the quarter dollar coin in the 1870s that the public rebelled against it. Nor did they know we had experimented with 2- and 3-cent pieces in the 1800s as well. Or that in 1883 we produced a 5-cent coin that failed to mention its denomination. They listened with complete attention as I noted that the omission permitted the criminally creative to gold plate these nickels and pass them off as new $5 gold pieces. I said I wasn't "Joshing" them, and told them the origin of the expression. A few older passengers remembered the 1943 Lincoln cents made of zinc-coated steel, a one-year-only issue, and the annoyance some people had with confusing bright shiny new ones with dimes of the day.
Furthermore, I noted, there were people who are very vocal about being uncomfortable with what they consider the heavy-handed efforts to place a relatively unknown minority woman on a coin for the sake of a "politically correct" agenda and force what they perceive as a marketing disaster upon the American public, at our great expense.
My fellow Galapagos Explorer II shipmates, mostly Americans, were amazed to learn that Indians (the aforesaid minority) are the second most represented human likeness on U.S. coins and cover a range that included cents, 5-cent coins, commemorative coins and gold coins. Or that women, allegorically depicted as Miss Liberty, were the most frequently used likeness on U.S. coinage, period.
I pointed out that the above aside I do not think that selecting a different design would help make another U.S. dollar coin any more successful than the Anthony dollars. I also asked, who could have been used if it was to be an Indian woman the Mint wanted on a coin?
Somebody mentioned Pocahontas, who is far better known than Sacagawea, all agreed. Or, if a male Indian was needed, Olympian Jim Thorpe garnered a few passenger votes. However, avoiding the minority or sex issue completely, there was no shortage of nominated candidates from our group: John Adams, Betsy Ross, Thomas Edison, Amelia Earhart, Jonas Salk, et al. I proffered there is always the hope of having a lovely allegorical depiction of Miss liberty on our coins again.
However, I pointed out, it really isn't an issue of who is on the coin. Americans just are not ready for a circulating dollar coin as long as paper currency of the same denomination is in circulation. It is a no-brainer that the Canadians made their dollar coin work because they withdrew the paper dollar.
I reminded fellow Galapagos Explorer II passengers, who seemed to be gathering up as many Sacagawea dollars as they could, that almost from its release the coin failed to circulate for its intended purpose in the United States and production figures ground to a halt for the first two months of 2002.
With a number of clients in Ecuador, I travel there several times each year. I've always considered such travel as exciting, fun-filled and educational sojourns rather than the actual business trips they really are. The very last thing I ever expected to see aboard a cruise ship that plys the waters of the Galapagos were people clamoring over Sacagawea dollars. I had resigned myself to the fact that millions and millions of them (like the Anthony dollar coins two decades earlier) would languish in Mint vaults for decades.
However, those wonderful, dollar-bill-crunching Ecuadorians, it seems, have come to the rescue. I wonder if they would have been happy with 2-cent coins, steel cents or Anthony dollars? If your travels take you to Ecuador, please leave the Sacagawea dollars there, where they are loved!
Muchos gracias.
Timothy B. Benford is an award-winning novelist and best-selling author. He owns and operates a public relations agency specializing in travel and tourism. His byline has appeared on coin and collectible stories in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
