The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 53, December 16, 2003, Article 8

SUSAN B. ANTHONY DOLLAR'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY.

  Dick Johnson writes: "Several editorial feature syndicates
  furnish lists "This Day In History" or similar to newspapers.
  One of these stated -- erroneously -- that last Friday,
  December 13th, was the 25th anniversary of the day "the
  Susan B. Anthony Dollar WAS ISSUED."

  One writer on the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Bill Blubinger)
  picked up on this item and wrote a story published Friday.
  He got the facts correct and noted the short-lived legacy
  of the Susan B. Anthony dollar.  He called it the "Edsel of
  dollars; the New Coke of coins" and ended with the
  statement that the coin's legacy was rich but short-changed.

  Friday, December 13, 1978, was the day the first Susies
  were struck. The coin was designed and modeled by Frank
  Gasparro, chief engraver at the Philadelphia Mint at the time,
  and were placed into production that day.  They weren't
  issued until July the following year. The date on the first
  coins was 1979, of course.

  The Plain Dealer story goes on to quote one Beachwood
  coin dealer, Jack Griffin, and also former Ohio Representative
  Mary Rose Oakar, who stated "When they wanted to do
  another Miss Liberty, I said, Why not put a real woman on
  the coin?" She had introduced a bill to use the famed women's
  rights advocate image on the coin.

  Here's the full story in The Cleveland Plain Dealer:

http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/1071311406294160.xml

  Looking back from a quarter century's perspective, the coin's
  lack of popularity rests -- not with the subject or the designer
  -- but mostly with its size. In a private conversation I once
  had with Frank Gasparro, he even admitted he spent one of
  the dollar coins as a quarter himself!"

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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