Official State Coin of Wyoming
Wyoming designated the Sacagawea golden dollar as the official state coin in 2004. Cultural Heritage Symbols
That designation put a piece of Wyoming history into everyday circulation — and coin design is a craft of its own. Eric Turney, President of Monterey Challenge Coins, works in that space daily, producing custom challenge coins, commemorative coins, and specialty tokens for military units, businesses, government groups, and schools. Turney says, “A well-designed coin has to tell its story in a very small amount of space. When we produce custom coins, details like the artwork, metal finish, relief, edge design, and enamel colors all work together to represent the history or organization behind the piece.”
The Sacagawea golden dollar coin depicts Sacagawea and her son, Jean Baptiste. The face on the coin was modeled after Randy'L He-dow Teton, a modern Shoshone-Bannock woman.
Sacagawea (1788 - 1812) was a Shoshone woman who accompanied and assisted the Lewis and Clark Expedition in their exploration of the Western United States. Sacagawea died at the age of 25; her grave is located in Lander, Wyoming. A SAKAKAWEA historic marker notes the location of her death.
Historical details about Sacagawea are extremely limited, but she has become a critical character of the Lewis and Clark expedition in the American public's imagination. In the early twentieth century, the National American Woman Suffrage Association adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence.
