The 1995 Special Olympics Dollar — the first U.S. coin to honor a living woman

For most of its history, the U.S. Mint kept the living off its coins. The instinct went back to the founders, who had watched kings stamp their own faces on money and wanted no part of it. Real Americans waited until they were dead to appear on a coin.

The 1995 Special Olympics dollar broke that rule. Its obverse — the heads side — carries the portrait of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and when the coin was struck, she was very much alive. It was the first U.S. coin to portray a living woman.

Shriver earned it. In 1962 she opened a day camp for children with intellectual disabilities in her own backyard in Maryland — at a time when those children were routinely hidden away in institutions. That camp grew into the Special Olympics: by 1995 it filled stadiums. The coin was timed to the 1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games in New Haven, Connecticut, where more than 7,000 athletes from over 140 nations competed and President Bill Clinton opened the games at the Yale Bowl.

The portrait was painted by Jamie Wyeth — the third generation of America's most famous painting family, son of Andrew, grandson of N.C. Wyeth. He gave the Mint the art; U.S. Mint sculptor-engraver T. James Ferrell did the hard part, translating a painter's likeness into low relief that a die could strike a third of a million times.

The reverse — the tails side — was designed by Mint sculptor-engraver Thomas D. Rogers Jr. It pairs a Special Olympics medal with a single rose, wrapped around a line from Shriver herself: "As we hope for the best in them, hope is reborn in us." It is rare for a U.S. coin to quote a living person. This one does, and signs it: "Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Founder."

The coin is a full-size silver dollar — 90% silver, just over 26 grams, the same heft as a Morgan or Peace dollar. It was never meant to spend. Like every modern U.S. commemorative, it was sold straight to collectors and supporters, with the proceeds going to a cause.

This is an affordable coin to own, and that is part of its appeal — a genuine first in U.S. coinage that does not cost a fortune. It came in two versions, and the split between them is the whole story for collectors.

The proof — struck at Philadelphia with the "P" mint mark, mirror fields, frosted devices — sold 351,764 coins. The uncirculated business strike, made at West Point with a "W" mint mark, sold only 89,301. That makes the 1995-W the scarcer of the pair by a wide margin, and it is the one collectors of the series watch.

A "mint mark," for the curious, is the small letter showing which Mint struck the coin. As with most modern commemoratives, condition is the real lever on value: the difference between an ordinary uncirculated example and a top-graded one — a flawless strike with no contact marks — can be the difference between a few dollars and a real premium. Because these were sold to collectors and stored carefully, high grades are common enough that only the very best stand out.