American Innovation 2019 $1 Reverse Proof Coin - New Jersey

The United States Mint American Innovation® $1 Coin Program is a multi-year series to honor innovation and innovators with $1 coins from each State, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands.

The United States Mint is proud to celebrate innovation and honor the spirit of America with the American Innovation $1 Reverse Proof Coin from the State of New Jersey— the third to be released in the series. It features an electric lightbulb, developed by Thomas Edison and his team of researchers, who made light bulbs available to the public. Prior to Edison and his researchers, earlier light bulbs from the 1830s had very short lifespans, used too much energy, or were simply too expensive to produce. By 1879, Edison and his team had managed to produce a bulb with a filament that could last 14.5 hours, and with continued work, they managed to improve to a filament with a lifetime of 1,200 hours. This marked the beginning of commercially manufactured light bulbs, giving people easy control over light in homes and businesses, drastically changing infrastructure, business, and society.

The reverse design features an Edison bulb against an ornate background. The inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “NEW JERSEY.”

The obverse design features a dramatic representation of the Statue of Liberty in profile with the inscriptions “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “$1.” The obverse also includes a privy mark of a stylized gear, representing industry and innovation.

The edge-incused inscriptions are “2019,” “S” mint mark, and “E PLURIBUS UNUM.”