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A Sacagawea / Native American dollar — an annual "time capsule" of Native American contributions. The theme of this issue is "Jim Thorpe".
Obverse
The obverse shows a portrait of Sacagawea — a young Shoshone woman, guide of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, carrying her infant son Jean-Baptiste on her back. Flanking it are LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. It is the most recognizable image of the series, unchanged since 2000. The inscription and portrait set a solemn, recognizable tone for the whole series.
Reverse
The 2018 reverse is a miniature of its own: it depicts Jim Thorpe — Olympic champion and football legend of the Sac and Fox Nation — captured in dynamic scenes of his athletic triumphs. Around the rim are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination $1, while the year and the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM are lettered on the edge. The relief catches the light as the coin is turned.
Historical context
The series-wide obverse depicts Sacagawea — a young Lemhi Shoshone woman born around 1788 in what is now Idaho. Captured by a rival tribe as a girl, she later became the wife of the trader Toussaint Charbonneau and, already pregnant, joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition in February 1805. Carrying her infant son Jean-Baptiste on her back, she took on the roles of interpreter, guide and peacemaker, without whom the party could hardly have reached the Pacific. Sacagawea became one of the most honored women in U.S. history — with more monuments dedicated to her than to any other American woman.
The 2018 reverse honors Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation — one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. At the 1912 Olympics he won gold in both the pentathlon and decathlon, and later starred in American football and baseball. The coin shows him in both amateur and professional sport, underscoring his all-round gift. His medals were once unjustly stripped, and only decades later restored to his memory. It rounds out the series nicely and looks striking in a capsule or tray.