Legislation calling for annual commemoration of American Indians on the reverse of circulating Sacagawea dollar coinage passed the House of Representatives June 12 and action now shifts to the Senate.
?Important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the development of the United States and the history of the United States? is called for by in bill H.R. 2358.
This parallels S. 585, the Native American Dollar Coin Act, which would also require the secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue coins in commemoration of Native Americans.
The Sacagawea design, renamed ?Sakakawea design? would be used together with supplementary concurrently struck designs.
?Each design for the reverse of the $1 coins issued during each year shall be emblematic of 1 important Native American or Native American contribution each year.?
One caveat: ?in the case of a design depicting the contribution of an individual Native American to the development of the United States and the history of the United States, shall not depict the individual in a size such that the coin could be considered to be a ?two-headed? coin.?
The motif would start in 2008, unless the legislation passes after July 1 of this year, in which case the first newly designed coins would be designated 2009 in their year of mintage.
