It was believed that a major factor in the failure of the Susan B. Anthony Dollar was that it was not easily distinguish from the Quarter Dollar. If sighted people were having a problem differentiating between the two, then it was compounded even more for visually impaired people. The "United States Dollar Coin Act of 1997" states "The dollar coin shall be golden in color, have a distinctive edge, have tactile and visual features that make the denomination of the coin readily discernible, ....."

A distinctive edge and tactile features was written into the law in order to give visually impaired people a mechanism to help them distinguish a dollar coin from a quarter dollar. With this in mind, the Gallery Mint Museum created an edge die with an alternating reeded and smooth edge. The idea being that a visually impaired person could feel the difference between a dollar with this edge and a quarter dollar with a fully reeded edge. This edge was tested on several available planchets including copper and brass planchets. After some of the brass planchets were struck with the 1998 Concept Dollar design, the project was aborted. According to Ron Landis, "These did not strike out without obliterating the reeding almost totally, and was abandoned after hearing from the Federation of the Blind expressing their desire for a totally smooth edge..." The Mint did follow the advice of the Federation of the Blind and struck the Sacagawea Dollar with a smooth edge, also called a plain edge.

The alternating reeded/plain edge planchet has 13 areas of reeds separated by 13 plain sections. Thirteen representing the number of original states. Of the 13 areas of reeds there are 11 with four reeds each and 2 with three reeds each for a total of 50 reeds, representative of the 50 present states.

To read more on the Gallery Mint Museum experimental edge test pieces, click on these off site links to the Gallery Mint Museum Scrapbook.

SOME OTHER SUGGESTED EDGE DESIGNS

There were several edge design suggestions, but to my knowledge, the people at the Gallery Mint were the only ones to actually make prototypes. Here are two more of the suggested edge designs.