Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/united-states-mint-releases-2026-american-innovation-one-dollar-coin-program-designs

by maguay • 9 months ago

244 268 9 months ago

usmint.gov

aanet2• 9 months ago

That Steve Jobs coin really looks cool. It's the sculpture of him sitting cross-legged, surrounded by hills of Silicon Valley.

I wonder if these coins are available for purchase by the general public? anybody know?

derektank2• 9 months ago

The 2025 set is available directly from the US mint. Presumably the 2026 set will be available next year

https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/american-innovati...

aanet2• 9 months ago

Thanks, all.

This is delightful.

I used to be a coin-collector as a kid. Kinda outgrew the hobby as I grew older. But I still love new/old/unusual coins (among other things). I think I might get my hands on some of these.

cjk• 9 months ago

Yes, the US Mint sells all of the coins in the American Innovation set to the public. Previous years’ coins can still be bought if they are not sold out.

Cthulhu_• 9 months ago

Not an American but I wouldn't mind having some of these. Actually, coin collecting is a pretty neat hobby, especially for commemorative coins which depict a story like these. I wouldn't go in it for their possible future financial value though.

RobotToaster4• 9 months ago

You can normally order rolls of them

derektank2• 9 months ago

I love how much Iowa embraces the man who saved a billion lives. He's also one of their two representatives in the National Statuary Hall Collection

lelandfe• 9 months ago

If you haven’t read it, I loved The Wizard and the Prophet and think about it a lot

dudeinjapan• 9 months ago

Steve should be meditating in a walled garden.

ta12653421• 9 months ago

are these meant for regular circulation or are these "collection items"?

(Im not from the US, so Im not aware of local specifics)

thaumasiotes2• 9 months ago

If they're meant for regular circulation, the program is being led by a buffoon. $1 coins have failed to circulate every time they've been introduced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea_dollar

Dollars are worth a lot less now than they were. If vending machines start charging integer numbers of dollars, maybe dollar coins will catch on.

trenchpilgrim• 9 months ago

All the vending machines I've used in the past 5 years were tap to pay.

rkomorn6• 9 months ago

You remind me of the time (probably around 2002) I used a 20 to pay for some transit card/ticket somewhere and ended up with something like 15 dollar coins in change. I want to say it was a metro card in NYC.

Concurrent dismay and delight.

mark-r4• 9 months ago

Vending machines are already taking credit cards, the dollar coin's time to catch on is long past.

RobotToaster4• 9 months ago

The answer is an awkward "yes"

They are "designed" for circulation, but only ever get sold as collectors items. Banks won't stock them but you can order rolls or bags of them from the US mint for a little over face value (I ordered a roll of the space shuttle ones to the UK)

I'm not sure what stops the USA using dollar coins in circulation, I assume there's no legal requirement for banks to stock them?

(The fact that's there's currently at least three different sizes of US dollar coin that is legal tender probably doesn't help either)

sschueller• 9 months ago

The toll booths in Massachusetts used to accept dollar coins.

bombcar4• 9 months ago

Banks usually have some dollar coins and if you ask they can get them.

But cash register drawers usually do not have a space for them, they’re relatively heavy, and people don’t use them because they don’t use them.

Vending machines famously went ham trying to use them which annoyed people.

It didn’t help that the old Susan B dollar coins were almost a quarter shape and size if you weren’t paying attention.

The dollar coin SHOULD be small, a bit bigger than a dime, imo.

Or just skip the dollar coin and go right to a three dollar coin.

astura2• 9 months ago

I'm not sure what stops the USA using dollar coins in circulation,

We have a dollar bill

ab5tract• 9 months ago

My intuition is that if there’s no 2 dollar coin to go with it, there’s no way for it to gain practical traction.

In the US, change is already an annoying factor because sales tax is rarely included in eg, 4.99. So no one is jumping up and down to go from five slices of paper to five rattling coins.

Y_Y• 9 months ago

They're very popular in Ecuador (along with locally minted coins)

contrarian12345• 9 months ago

weird design for steve jobs.. without context it looks like the depiction of some spiritual leader (which maybe is a bit funny given the early apple fanbase). I get he was a bit of a hippie, but that's not exactly his claim-to-fame

His posture and expression, as he is captured in a moment of reflection

i dont associate "reflection" with him. not to disparage him in the slightest, but its just not in the top ten of things i associate with him.

I then made myself laugh by trying to imagine a depiction of Bill Gates in the same pose

FloorEgg• 9 months ago

And then you made me laugh as well.

baxtr• 9 months ago

From: Steve Jobs, sjobs@apple.com

To: Steve Jobs, sjobs@apple.com

Date: Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 11:08PM

  I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the seeds.

  I do not make any of my own clothing.  I speak a language I did not invent or refine.  

  I did not discover the mathematics I use.

  I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.  

  I am moved by music I did not create myself.  

  When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive.

  I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with.

  I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.

Sent from my iPad

contrarian12345• 9 months ago

yeah, i don't wanna shit of steve jobs. I'm sure he reflects on stuff. (though this thing seems to suggest.. he needs to reflect on some real basic human stuff..) I'm sure you can find some cute quotes from Bill Gates too. It's just not really what he's known for

just out of pure curiosity.. what's the context of this? He wrote a poem.. to email to himself? and.. how did he get access to his private emails?

I can't think of any other example of people writing and mailing poems to themselves

vanderZwan• 9 months ago

I then made myself laugh by trying to imagine a depiction of Bill Gates in the same pose

That is funny, although nothing will ever top Deborah Feingold's 1985 photoshoot where he lies on his desk and flirts with the camera

contrarian12345• 9 months ago

see, now that's a coin I'd actually get! I'd get a whole roll and give it out to friends

throw101010• 9 months ago

We should get a coin of Bill Gates jumping over a chair: https://youtube.com/watch?v=KxaCOHT0pmI

card_zero3• 9 months ago

Indeed

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*l85kSwZf...

It always reminds me of Manet's Olympia.

cubefox• 9 months ago

Either of these two Steve Jobs portraits would have been much better:

https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4D12AQHLC366nJwa1A/art...

lossyalgo• 9 months ago

If you scroll down there is a description explaining the pose:

This design presents a young Steve Jobs sitting in front of a quintessentially northern California landscape of oak-covered rolling hills. His posture and expression, as he is captured in a moment of reflection, show how this environment inspired his vision to transform complex technology into something as intuitive and organic as nature itself. Inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “CALIFORNIA.” Additional inscriptions are “STEVE JOBS” and “MAKE SOMETHING WONDERFUL.”

ada19812• 9 months ago

It reminds me of the scene from the movie where he’s taking LSD in the field.

contrarian12345• 9 months ago

sometimes I'm really flabbergasted by the replies and reading comprehension on HN. I'm genuinely curious what's going on. Are you a last-gen AI or something? Did you read the first sentence and hit reply?

I'm literally quoting the passage you're citing and talking directly about it. And then you quote it back to me.

mind = blown.

JKCalhoun4• 9 months ago

which maybe is a bit funny given the early apple fanbase

Or, you know, just early Steve Jobs.

keiferski3• 9 months ago

The Jobs picture looks to be based on this famous photo of him in an empty house:

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/mt/science/jobsalone.jpg

JKCalhoun4• 9 months ago

A lot of dissimilarities from that photo.

I like the photo though. Maybe I'm just a hi-fi dork. Is it a McIntosh tube amplifier behind him? Would be befitting.

js2• 9 months ago

Here's a discussion from 2011 where folks pieced it together:

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/steve-jobs-stereo-sy...

Wired summarized that discussion into a photo gallery:

https://www.wired.com/2014/04/steve-jobs-stereo-system/

- Michell MK1 Gyrodec turntable

- Denon TU-750s tuner (Sitting atop Threshold pre amp)

- Threshold FET-One pre amp

- Threshold STASIS-1 amp (Not in photo, seems to be an educated guess. Some debate whether the speakers are powered and maybe an external amp wasn't needed.)

- Acoustat Monitor 3 speakers

esafak2• 9 months ago

With attribution: https://stevejobsarchive.com/artifact/steve-at-home-sitting-...

JumpCrisscross2• 9 months ago

What happened to Trump promising to cancel the penny? It was a genuinely good idea that should have carried on to the nickel and dime. (I’m divided on $1 and $2 coins.)

firesteelrain• 9 months ago

Treasury stopped minting it reportedly back in May of this year. It’s officially still valid denomination and with tons in circulation, it’s doubtful it will be going away anytime soon.

JumpCrisscross2• 9 months ago

It looks like they’ll stop minting in “early 2026,” when they run out of blanks [1].

[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/5554660-dont...

fwgijcqywqeo• 9 months ago

One day they will make a coin featuring Elon Musk with the quote: "Full Self Driving is ready in 3 to 6 month"

cassettelabs• 9 months ago

And it's a first time Bill Gates had a thought that he would better be dead by now.

xandrius• 9 months ago

I'd personally rather still being alive than being on a coin.

actionfromafar• 9 months ago

If Trump can get a coin, does that mean Steve Jobs is alive?

themafia• 9 months ago

Why Steve Jobs and not the Apple II? Or even the iPhone?

Alternatively why not Seymour Cray instead of the Cray-1?

Or why not use one side for the inventor and the other side for the invention?

Jobs sitting there in an empty field just throws the whole set for me.

ahoka• 9 months ago

The title was editorialized and not accurate. These are two separate coins celebrating innovations in their respectable states.

Thorrez• 9 months ago

Sure. But why does one coin have a person and the other have an invention? Why not inventions for both or people for both?

pk-protect-ai• 9 months ago

Why not Wozniak (probably still alive), or Shannon (I'd vote for him), Convey, Knut, Reed, Solomon, Thompson, Ritchie, Kernighan, etc?

Why it is a CEO? Why Jobs and Edison?

It is just how it is...

voidUpdate• 9 months ago

I don't think you're allowed to have living people on a US coin

elif2• 9 months ago

Each state voted on its innovation.

wqaatwt2• 9 months ago

Well Jobs repeated it ~3-4 times without Wozniak (and arguably being a part of making Apple II a huge success was not even his greatest achievement).

amelius3• 9 months ago

Why not the inventors of the transistor?

Anyway, at least I'm happy the Nobel prize committee isn't based in the US. Otherwise we'd soon see the Nobel prize for advertising.

edm0nd• 9 months ago

I'd vote for a Stallman coin and its him eating his foot flesh

vunderba• 9 months ago

I'd love to see Wozniak up there. From Al Alcorn, a pivotal computer scientist and electrical engineer employed in the early days of Atari:

"So, meanwhile, Steve’s friend Wozniak comes in the evenings. He would be out there during burn-in tests while these Tank games were on the production line, and he’d play Tank forever. I didn’t think much of it; I didn’t care. He was a cool guy.

I found that what really had happened was that Jobs never designed a lick of anything in his life. He had Woz do it [redesign Breakout].

Woz did it in like 72 hours nonstop and all in his head. He got it down to 20 or 30 ICs [integrated circuits]. It was remarkable… a tour de force.

It was so minimized, though, that nobody else could build it. Nobody could understand what Woz did but Woz. It was this brilliant piece of engineering, but it was just unproduceable. So the game sat around and languished in the lab."

Suffocate5100• 9 months ago

I would've been happy with the picture of Steve and Woz in the garage.

johnnyanmac10• 9 months ago

Woz is still alive, so that wouldn't be possible yet. But I do agree.

boomboomsubban3• 9 months ago

It's not a major deal as nobody will use them, but it's strange to have a company on US legal tender. I wonder what percent of the run Cray will buy?

fredoralive• 9 months ago

Presumably some, although HPE don’t use the old Cray logo, and the name is a bit downplayed when they talk about their supercomputer stuff, although it is still used (like most old computer companies, naturally they’ve ended up owned by HPE, who seem to collect them).

boomboomsubban3• 9 months ago

Ah, I noticed they had been acquired by HPE, but their Wikipedia article still listed revenue so I assumed they were a subsidiary. Looking again, the revenue is from the year before the acquisition. My mistake.

keiferski3• 9 months ago

There isn’t a company on the coins, just the supercomputer device itself.

The Jobs coin has Jobs himself.

boomboomsubban3• 9 months ago

The device is followed by the word "Cray" and overall it's similar enough to their trademarked logo I imagine I'd get in trouble if I tried to use it.

butlike5• 9 months ago

that shit cray

blauditore2• 9 months ago

Not American myself, and never been there - are there really $1 notes and coins, or am I missing something here?

jo-m• 9 months ago

yes, there are.

rkomorn6• 9 months ago

Yes. $1 coins aren't super common but they're not so odd that someone wouldn't believe it's real.

There are also collector-oriented coins but pretty much none of those are actually intended for use.

Edit: fun fact, there are also $2 bills (but those are way more rare and someone might not believe it's real).

technofiend• 9 months ago

It's happened more than once that people thought $2 bills were fake; here's a recent example: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/houston-school-confuses-2-...

I had someone pocket a Susan B. Anthony $1 coin and put their own money in the register to replace it, but that was because it was a rare coin, not because they thought it was fake.

redeux• 9 months ago

$2 bills aren’t rare at all. You can walk into your local bank and get a stack of them anytime, if you’d like.

strogonoff• 9 months ago

I love Wozniak’s story about $2 bills that are particularly difficult to believe in reality of: https://web.archive.org/web/20111122202554/https://archive.w...

Tuna-Fish• 9 months ago

The $1 dollar notes are very economically inefficient (they don't last all that long, haven't had enough value to justify notes for a long time), and the mint has been trying to get people to stop using them and switch to coins for a long time. However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes.

At one point you could order $1 coins from the mint at face value and with free shipping, and they were really happy when they thought that lots of people were starting to use them. They were less happy when they realized just a few people were purchasing them on credit card with cashback, and just instantly depositing them back at the nearest bank to pay their credit card bill.

cge• 9 months ago

However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes.

One of the most important features for cash is that it actually be accepted widely, and if I recall, that is a significant problem for $1 coins. I expect the majority machines that accept cash don't accept them, and trying to use them with a cashier is likely to result in amusement or confusion at best, rejection as a very possible outcome, or even accusations of fraud. That there were few instances where an individual would ever get these in normal activities probably made recognition and use even worse, especially as the instances I cam remember often seemed like attempts to push them inconveniently; I seem to remember that some government machines, I think in post offices, would insist on giving change with enormous numbers of one dollar coins, which would likely generate some resentment for users expecting change that would actually be accepted elsewhere.

It likely doesn't help that the design is rather large, eg, it is wider than a two euro coin and almost as heavy, and that one dollar notes are still being produced. For some reason, the US seems far less willing to be decisive in these changes.

ChrisMarshallNY2• 9 months ago

The single biggest problem with $1 coins, is that they are of similar size to quarter-dollar coins.

    26.50 mm (1.043 in) - $1.00
    24.26 mm (0.955 in) - $0.25

They feel almost identical, in your pocket, and the $1 coin is small enough to get stuck in many vending machines.

I am not exactly sure of the reason that the mint is so resistant to making the coins a bit bigger (they used to be).

contrarian12345• 9 months ago

There are 1 dollar coins and 50 cent coins. The issue is that they've never had consistent designs/sizes so machines don't take them and people don't recognize them. To my mind, this is the primary reason they haven't caught on

hakfoo• 9 months ago

The 50-cent coin has been a consistent size since about 1836. It weighs exactly as much as two 25-cent or five ten-cent coins.

The dollar coin has been the same size since 1979, and the same colour since 2000.

happymellon• 9 months ago

I remember using the light rail in DC when I visited, and that used $1 coins.

blackguardx• 9 months ago

Caltrain stations' automated machines used to famously give $1 coins as change when buying tickets as well. Getting like 10 $1 coins as change for a $20 bill really weighed your pants down.

jrf6• 9 months ago

DC Metro is a heavy rail system.

nemo44x2• 9 months ago

Who wants a big pocket of heavy coins? Can keep in a wallet and just about anywhere is happy to exchange for larger bills if you’ve acquired too many.

mettamage• 9 months ago

Hmm.. I would’ve preferred Wozniak.

They got the wrong Steve.

CaptainOfCoit• 9 months ago

I mean we're talking about a country which boils down to "What would happen if we maximized capitalism with no regard for other things?", and while I both admire and despise Steve Jobs, he feels like the perfect individual to put on a US coin.

dbish• 9 months ago

Woz is awesome and as an engineer I understand the urge to say he’s the main one who should be honored but we have to be realistic. Jobs ushered in 2 eras, only 1 with Woz. The personal computer and the computer in everyone’s pocket.

That’s not touching any of the other areas like helping to drive Pixar. Woz did not have a second act, which is perfectly fine and I deeply respect him but he doesn’t have quite the same cultural impact.

engeljohnb2• 9 months ago

Woz is a genius who invented the personal computer as we know it.

Jobs was a celebrity who was good at branding himself as a genius.

I don't consider a clever UI idea like a touch screen to be a work of brilliance, especially since he did zero engineering work, both for early and later Apple devices. Touch screen handheld devices would've come around with or without him, just maybe a few years later.

It should've been Woz.

surfingdino• 9 months ago

I'd love to see Dennis Ritchie commemorated as one of the greatest Americans.

jmclnx2• 9 months ago

He deserves it, without him, Jobs would be an unknown.

overflyer• 9 months ago

Steve Jobs was an absolut malignent narcissist and a copycat. Why not Dennis Ritchie for example? This is ridiculous.

jmclnx2• 9 months ago

Yes, I think this is an insult to our profession. All I can say about Jobs is he made lots of $. Dennis Ritchie revolutionized an industry.

nozzlegear6• 9 months ago

Yes, I think this is an insult to our profession.

I don't think the Mint's goal is to celebrate developers and computer scientists with the new coins. They're celebrating famous innovators and innovations from each state.

duxup• 9 months ago

That is one ugly coin and doesn’t look like Steve Jobs.

It also makes no sense to not include a computer. I get the “California theme but Steve and hills and trees doesn’t jive.

noufalibrahim• 9 months ago

Agreed though the shape of the Cray-1 is really suited to be on a coin. The Jobs one looks really terrible.

amelius3• 9 months ago

And on the side it reads "you're holding it wrong".

xixixao• 9 months ago

I can't find a photo of Jobs in sneakers and in turkish instead of a lotus pose. The only reference is this toy, which matches the coin:

https://majorspoilers.com/2013/10/17/toys-legend-toys-announ...

But the famous photo I do know doesn't match it:

https://milenanguyen.com/blog/steve-jobs-20s-the-head-of-a-h...

sskates• 9 months ago

Norman Borlaug's story is amazing. He brought modern farming practices to Mexico and created a new strain of high yield disease resistant dwarf wheat at quadrupled wheat production in the country. Did the same in India, Pakistan, and Africa. Saved a billion lives as a result. Solved food as a limited resource for the first time in human history. We've now gotten to transcend food scarcity as a society.

It's super cool that the US Mint is commemorating his work.

grumpy-de-sre• 9 months ago

Few individuals have touched anywhere near as many lives as he has, perhaps only matched by Fritz Haber/Carl Bosch and ammonia synthesis.

throw0101d2• 9 months ago

Mobile Refrigeration — Minnesota

The logistical chain for keeping products products is really interesting:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chain

Besides food, another area where it is critical is pharmaceuticals.

classified• 9 months ago

I have to say, I like the Mobile Refrigeration coin the most.

royskee2• 9 months ago

A book on the subject came out earlier this year that I've been wanting to read, "Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves" by Nicola Twilley

hklgny• 9 months ago

check out Bill Bryson’s “at home” if you’re looking for something a little less specific to refrigeration and more fun narration of similar novel life/home inventions. To give a sense of depth, refrigeration is probably a few pages. It’s very high level but a fun read about things you’ve forgotten to think about around the house

shortrounddev22• 9 months ago

During the pandemic there was controversy about who received Moderna/Phizer vs who received J&J's vaccine. They were giving black neighborhoods J&J because it didn't have as strict refrigeration requirements, and a lot of black neighborhoods don't have a nearby pharmacy which can store the vaccines. J&J was thought to be less effective and had a higher rate of vaccine injury though.

ants_everywhere• 9 months ago

When I think of COVID and refrigeration trucks I think of them being used as makeshift morgues before the bodies were moved to mass graves.

bluGill3• 9 months ago

J&J was very effective. They came later and turned out to be less effective than Moderna/Phizer - but their vaccine was still very good when viewed in isolation - they just were unfortunate to have an amazingly great competitor to compare against.

Ylpertnodi• 9 months ago

J&J was though to be less effective and had a higher rate of vaccine injury though.

What's a 'vaccine injury', though?

RobotToaster4• 9 months ago

had a higher rate of vaccine injury though.

Given the most common vaccine injury is caused by improper administration, I wonder if that could be related? ie. less trained staff would potentially be administering vaccines in black neighbourhoods? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoulder_injury_related_to_vac...

mark-r4• 9 months ago

They said these innovations are what the state is known for, but I've been a Minnesota resident my entire life and didn't know refrigerated trucking was invented here.

bluGill3• 9 months ago

Unlike California, MN is not good at promoting all the things they do and so people never think of them despite all the cool/useful inventions that come from there. (I now live in Iowa which is even worse about promoting).

coldpie• 9 months ago

Same! This coin would be a cool little Minnesota artifact to own. I guess they'll be available to purchase here some time ($~35 for a set of 25 of them, or $~14 for a single "proof coin", whatever that is): https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/american-innovati...

_fat_santa• 9 months ago

Planet Money did a an excellent podcast on the topic[1]. Highly recommend a listen for anyone interested.

[1] https://www.npr.org/2025/09/26/nx-s1-5553615/gustavus-swift-...

api• 9 months ago

I’d say these celebrate entrepreneurship more than innovation. Nothing wrong with that, but it does bother me that the true innovators often don’t get credit outside academia and enthusiasts well versed in the history.

Apple II was not the first usable by mere mortals PC. There’s a lot of contenders but one of the earliest came from Georgia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compucolor

Cray was not the first multiprocessor wide vector supercomputer, but it did innovate on it. I’d say Cray broke more fundamental innovation ground than Apple.

LarsDu882• 9 months ago

They could've put the Apple I or the 6502 or an Intel chip on there

LarsDu882• 9 months ago

They could've put the Apple I, 6502, and Intel pentium, or even the frickin iPod on there

nemo44x2• 9 months ago

Every truck has mobile refrigeration for half the year in Minnesota.

ada19812• 9 months ago

Hopefully the mint will offer free shipping via USPS again, and still accept credit cards over the web.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/07/22/138610663/doll...

HarHarVeryFunny• 9 months ago

Cray-1 - half computer (inner circle), half seating (outer circle).

mark-r4• 9 months ago

The seating was just a clever way to hide the power supplies. That thing required a LOT of power.

t1234s• 9 months ago

Any info on the metal used for the coins?

hopelite• 9 months ago

The irony of all of this is of course not only that effectively no one has used any of the $1 coins since the introduction of the Sacagawea, when their value had basically halved since then, just based on official inflation fraud numbers; so it is unlikely anyone will ever see these coins either, unless you make a deliberate point to acquire and use them.

The government is clearly trying to do away with the freedom of coinage and bills, intentionally and unintentionally through its inflation fraud, and that decline of America is rather ironically encapsulated in this kind of cheapening of the currency in several literal and figurative forms.

And these coins are not even made of any durable metals that could survive history until another civilization can collectively wonder about how America could have ruined itself so quickly, after rising so rapidly.

They could have at least made these coins at least silver or gold, so some future intelligence could at least find them. But here we are, the government creating tokens with cheap iconography made of cheap materials and a face value that literally cannot even buy you a cup of colored sugar water anymore.

Frankly, who cares? Beyond saying “that’s nifty” while looking at the images of the designs; who here expects to ever see one of these “in the wild”?

Have you seen any of the 40 presidential dollar coins in the wild? How about the 29 “American innovation” coins that precede this set? Heck, how often have you seen a Sacagawea in the wild, considering there were probably about 2+ billion of them minted by now?

SaberTail• 9 months ago

And meanwhile today you can get more power than the Cray-1 (or Cray-2) from a single chip a fraction of the size of that coin.

Very quickly:

  a dollar coin is about 550 mm^2 on a face
  the Cray-1 could do 160 MFLOPS
  an M1 chip has a die size of 120 mm^2
  an M1 chip can do over 1 TFLOPS

foobarian• 9 months ago

I had just gone down this rabbit hole for unrelated reasons (looking into yields). Nvidia's 5090 die is 750 mm^2, managing 419 TFLOPS on the FP16 benchmark.

Mr_Minderbinder• 9 months ago

The “over 1 TFLOPS” claim for the M1 appears to be for single precision floats whereas FLOPS performance figures for supercomputers, including the one given for the CRAY-1, are almost always based on double precision (FP64) floats. The double precision FLOPS performance of the M1 would be lower, perhaps half of the single precision performance.

zitterbewegung• 9 months ago

Dipping dots had a subsidiary made and helped refrigerate them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dippin'_Dots?wprov=sfti1#

mindcrash• 9 months ago

Featuring Jobs without Woz is actually disgusting. IMO, as a child of the 80s, Apple becoming popular and innovative required both.

EDIT: And forgot to mention Jef Raskin, who together with Woz played a pivotal role engineering the first Macintosh in 1984.

stevenjgarner• 9 months ago

Minimum of $27.50 for all 4 coins ($6.88 per coin), or $123.50 for 100 of one coin (for 2025 [1])

[1] https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/american-innovati...

sparrish5• 9 months ago

Those aren't the coins in circulation. Those are proof coins and reverse proof coins, made shiny for collectors.

shevy-java• 9 months ago

Shall we forget that Steve Jobs conspired with other companies to pay developers less?

This is well-documented in courts (and also on many other websites, by the way):

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/24/apple-goo...

See:

"[...] Steve Jobs orchestrated an elaborate scheme to prevent poaching and drive down wages."

tylerflick• 9 months ago

For real. Where is my Dennis Ritchie coin?

geodel• 9 months ago

Maybe order some from here[1]

1. https://www.militarycoinsusa.com/

johnnyanmac10• 9 months ago

Would ha e 100% taken Woz, but he still seems to be kicking.

That is the interesting thing about tech. So many pioneers that transformed society are still around. It's a relatively young field that exploded over the last few decades.

bArray• 9 months ago

Shall we forget that Steve Jobs conspired with other companies to pay developers less?

What could be a more fitting placement than on a dollar coin? He'll be used to pay employees using an inflating dollar currency, where he can continue to pay employees less in perpetuity.

elif2• 9 months ago

Considering it costs $1.25 for each of these he's already withholding value!

rtkwe• 9 months ago

On the other hand what's more American than eroding workers rights through coordination between rich business owners? Granted there's fewer machine guns on trains involved than in some periods. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre and several other incidents.

legitster• 9 months ago

His ultimate crime of cheapness was pushing the $1-$3 app.

He singlehandedly set the anchor price of the entire industry so low that he set in motion the whole freemium/monetization/enshittification trend.

ivell• 9 months ago

I think even if the price was set high it would have devolved into enshitification and ad-infestation. With expensive televisions amd fridges pushing ads, it is not too far fetched. Expensive software is also going down the path of enshitification.

avazhi2• 9 months ago

Ok? That doesn’t diminish in any way his technological and industrial accomplishments.

danans3• 9 months ago

Ok? That doesn’t diminish in any way his technological and industrial accomplishments.

Why are those the criteria for being on a coin? Neither Henry Ford nor John D Rockefeller are on coins.

Jobs was dismissive of concerns about US technology manufacturing jobs being offshored to China, famously saying "Those jobs aren't coming back" [1].

He was right of course, and he seems to have consciously avoided involvement in discussions about the economic impacts of the manufacturing exodus on US workers - he was a requisite globalist.

It took Obama pressing him to get him to even make the statement I referenced above.

1. https://m-economictimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/m.economi...

KalMann• 9 months ago

I think the moral character / deeds of a person should play a role in whether or not we choose to honor them.

NoSalt• 9 months ago

Yes ... Steve Jobs was a complete jerk, but he was a brilliant salesman and CEO, and you cannot deny that.

garciasn• 9 months ago

He was an absolutely brilliant visionary who was able to bring his way of thinking to life through others, in the most brutal way possible. This included business (successes and failures) and his treatment of people (including his own family and ultimately himself).

What he did was literally change the shape and direction of the entire human race through his ability to level up existing products (directly and indirectly) to a level that no one would have thought possible, including his own employees.

That said, he was absolute piece of shit human being and all of his successes came at great expense of himself and others. I think there are a great number of people who are far more well-rounded and, if we aren't focused on fascist ideals, we should elevate those folks instead of Jobs.

johnnyanmac10• 9 months ago

Hot take, but I'm not sure if "salesman" is what I want represented in history.

Then again, that's probably what most represent America of the last 50 yearss. Selling off all its talent overseas and then trying to sell off the idea of labor afterwards.

danans3• 9 months ago

Shall we forget that Steve Jobs conspired with other companies to pay developers less?

Forgetting bad actions is an essential part of the process of deification, and since ancient times, rulers who sought to be equated with gods would put their or their ancestors images on coins with a deity on the reverse side.

Several coins in the US display slave owners because they are founding fathers, and the practice of putting presidents on coins in the US only began in the early 1900s, with the Lincoln penny, and their portraits on paper money only began 50 years earlier.

In our current era of tech industrialist worship, is it surprising that we do the same for Steve Jobs?

That said, you are absolutely right to bring it up, as a push back against that deification process.

mensetmanusman2• 9 months ago

People can remember both. Everyone has a good and bad side. We celebrate the good and condemn the bad.

fujigawa2• 9 months ago

to pay developers less

Oh no, he only paid them $300k/year? How did they survive without selling their kidneys to the black market?

johnnyanmac10• 9 months ago

The difference between a highlh paid specialist worker and a billionaire is about a billion dollars. They are still working class, they can still be screwed over.

Times are hard, but don't confuse the person with a bowl of rice with the people who own thr rice factory. Even if that is a lot compared to the scraps you have.

smeeger• 9 months ago

developers deserve less. they were paid way too much especially back then

walkabout• 9 months ago

If we’re doing “deserve” then I have some other, more pressing suggestions for who might deserve less, than the people doing the actual work.

If we’re not doing “deserve” then no, they should have had more money if illegal wage suppression hadn’t been happening. Else the illegal wage suppression wouldn’t have been needed.

johnnyanmac10• 9 months ago

Why?

larodi• 9 months ago

Many people don't even know the Syrian ancestry of Jobs, as per WikiPedia.

Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955, to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (Arabic: عبد الفتاح الجندلي)

...

His cousin Bassma Al Jandaly has claimed that Jobs' birth name (prior to adoption) was Abdul Lateef Jandali (Arabic: عبد اللطيف الجندلي).

Perhaps also a good moment to remember this Banksy art

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/11/banksy-...

(...from where we read..)

In a rare statement accompanying the work, Banksy said: “We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple ... only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.”

scoofy2• 9 months ago

This is one reason I support not putting humans on money. We used to put mythological figures on our coinage (liberty, justice, etc), because the are symbols and are uncomplicated by substance.

Humans are flawed. Putting humans on money -- as symbols -- is going to make us go in circles about their imperfection. From Washington as a slave owner to Steve Jobs suppressing wages.

This is not an issue if we just put the symbols on the money instead of using people as proxies. If we want a coin for innovators, but Providentia on the coin.

johnnyanmac10• 9 months ago

Guess when you put it that way, it's much better to have a clanker on a coin than a person.

Sadly, with that mentality we wouldn't have celebrities or perhaps even that many leaders. Fests like this are what drive some of the most driven people, and our biology makes us want to follow and admire other people as a former pack hunting species. The best we got is thst we can't put any living person on a coin (though, guess what the rumors are trying to say?)

whateveracct• 9 months ago

If you can't handle that people have flaws, you're just immature. Washington and Jobs are both hugely important historical figures, and the bad parts don't invalidate their legacies.

Purity testing has ruined liberal politics.

freetinker• 9 months ago

This is an evolved view. Let’s put achievements on currency, not humans. Of course, this is no panacea - “achievement” is ambiguous enough to be open to interpretation, and therefore political capture. But it’s a step forward.

mensetmanusman2• 9 months ago

Mature thinkers can realize that humans are simultaneously good and bad. It’s perfectly fine to celebrate the good side while acknowledging their flaws.z

Nevermark• 9 months ago

I am currently unaware of anyone who has accomplished anything considered historically important over any significant time period to judge, that didn’t have obvious ethical gaps.

Probably nobody lives without ethical gaps.

and the impact of ethical gaps of someone who has been able to achieve a lot, and are more visible to judge, are likely to both be and seem to be, proportionally greater.

Could it be enough to simply honor people who, overall, have done inspiring, positive things, while not giving them a pass for their mistakes and deficiencies, assuming they are legitimately smaller in scale?

I am not a fan of “purity” viewpoints.

so much easier to be severely critical, than open oneself up for judgement.

I am a fan of realism in both accomplishments and failures. The good impact and the bad. And taking inspiration and warning, from those whose accomplishments weigh more heavily to the former.

Being realistic has another advantage.

it doesn’t strongly imply, without actual evidence, that the speaker is somehow less prone to mistakes.

gnarlouse• 9 months ago

If you’re gonna do jobs, do wozniak as well like jesus, one has actual American values, the other was a ruthless friend-fucker

butlike5• 9 months ago

Never heard of that Norman Borlaug guy. Sounds like a standup guy from his wikipedia.

esafak2• 9 months ago

Borlaug. Bill Gates talks about him a lot: https://www.gatesnotes.com/the-man-who-fed-the-world

Borland was the software company.

Maybe I missed the joke?

butlike5• 9 months ago

No, it was just a misspelling. Edited for clarity.

hirvi749• 9 months ago

Woz should be on the coin and not Jobs.

diego_moita• 9 months ago

When Steve Job died all major newspapers, magazines and television news shows dedicated major space and time to report his death.

One week after someone far more important died: the co-creator of the most influential computer program in history (Unix) and the most influential programming language in history (C). Very few news media outlet reported the death of Dennis M. Ritchie.

I argue that Ritchie's legacy runs deeper and wider than Jobs'. Almost all CPUs and microprocessors existing today run code that was implemented using technologies created by Ritchie, from ABS breaks to satellites. But, even in this forum, many people don't know about him.

b00ty4breakfast• 9 months ago

if the intent is to bring attention to technological innovations, Jobs was not a technological innovator, despite what the decades of PR would lead you to believe. If we want to argue that he was a promoter of tech innovations, in his capacity as a businessman, I would find that less objectionable but I still don't think Jobs is the guy we should be highlighting, given his track record of screwing over the people doing the actual work and innovating. (though depending on how cynical you are, that is perhaps exactly the type of person that the Powers That Be would want to push as the face of innovation)

groundzeros20153• 9 months ago

Innovator has a broader meaning than the individual who wrote the program or built the circuit. Setting the direction and vision for technology is a big deal.

The engineers were very smart but it’s hard to see us knowing their name or having such an impact on technology without Steve. Woz was destined for a comfortable 30 year career at HP.

alephnerd2• 9 months ago

Why should driving a "design-first" and "user experience"/UX first model not be viewed as innovative?

Just implementing something isn't enough. You need to also be able to ensure that it is usable by non-specialists.

And this is something that Jobs really drove in the tech industry in it's early days, when non-technical users were basically an afterthought.

That is the reasoning behind their choice for Jobs, and honestly it's a valid one.

hbn• 9 months ago

He created Apple, and then came back to save them from bankruptcy and made them profitable within months which none of their other CEOs leading up to his return could.

The way he got the notoriously staunch record labels on board with their $1/song plan to make iTunes possible and make music infinitely more convenient and accessible overnight was unforeseen.

Not many people have repeatedly proven themselves many times over like he did. I do believe he was one of the greatest business men of all time, and for all the things you can complain about with Apple, I'm glad they exist to inject some sense of taste into computing, and a standard for every other computing device to be compared to (cue examples of bad design decisions that came from Apple. Don't bother, doesn't disprove my point)

kemiller2002• 9 months ago

I'm writing this from a Mac when I ask this. Has Apple actually created anything that could arguably have changed the world? Resistant crops, the Cray, mobile refrigeration all changed the world. My iPhone's nice, but it's not exactly on the same level. Is there anything from Apple that I'm missing?

aftbit2• 9 months ago

The iPhone absolutely changed the world. I agree - it is not on the level of the green revolution or refrigeration. It still led to one of the largest paradigm shifts in end user computing, taking it from the desk or table at work or home into the hand, everywhere, for everyone.

fluoridation2• 9 months ago

I'm honestly still trying to wrap my head around in what way exactly the iPhone was innovative. It wasn't the first phone that could run programs, nor the first phone that could use the Internet (the "i" in "iPhone"). Perhaps it was the first phone that did both of those and also had a touchscreen, however that seems like an odd thing that would "take end-user computing from the desk to the hand, everywhere". I would argue the iPhone itself is not the innovation, but rather the ecosystem around it: the app store. I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone else was doing that in 2006.

aftbit2• 9 months ago

The iPhone changed the world through sheer scale. This even trickled back upstream to its components.

For example, VECSEL lasers were added to the iPhone in 2017 to power FaceID. At the time, they were a low volume, high cost component (used primarily in fiber transceivers) with generally poor yields.

Today, thanks in large part to the sheer number demanded by iPhones, they are a cheap, near commodity component with >90% yields.

https://www.electrooptics.com/article/vcsels-deliver-mega-im...

mxuribe2• 9 months ago

Maybe its simply my personally opinion, but I agree with @tylerflick with the opinion that why not Dennis Ritchie. Sure, Jobs was a ridiculously effective *promoter*, and there is without a doubt a place for that role in the world...But i guess when i think *innovation* i think Ritchie, Woz, Cray, Admiral Hopper, etc...not, like, the business folks...but maybe i'm being too harsh?

alephnerd2• 9 months ago

Before Steve Jobs, UX was an afterthought in much of software development.

It was he and Apple that really drove the tech industry to recognize that User Experience and developing simplified products for non-specialists matter.

Even the Mint gives that explaination for why he's included as an "innovator".

mxuribe2• 9 months ago

Respectfully, i disagree. But, then when i really probe why i feel that, i think i simply have personally negative feelings against Jobs, and that of course isn't fair to fans of Jobs. It might sound like i'm discounting the good things that jobs indeed did accomplish, and which directly did help society...I'm not! I just feel like Jobs is that kid who - yes, does help - but others do LOTS of the work, but because he is the loudest kid, tends to get all the attention...clearly the issue is on my side; my personal feelings towards Jobs, and its not a fair assessment for whether he should or should not be considered an innovator...So i think i will respectfully stop commenting on this thread since i am of course not adding value, other than to express: i never liked Jobs...Which isn't helpful for this dialogue. So...Sorry, and thanks all!

whalesalad• 9 months ago

Everyone in here is concerned about whether or not X, Y or Z should be on the coin. I am asking myself, why the hell are we minting a new coin at all.

fluoridation2• 9 months ago

They're commemorative coins.

avazhi2• 9 months ago

That’s a pretty awful likeness of Jobs at any age.

clueless• 9 months ago

The Cray-1 supercomputer icon looks like the outline of burning man's black rock city. Wonder if there was any inspiration from Cray-1 supercomputer's design.

deaddodo• 9 months ago

Concentric circles around a central figure, with a wedge to allow entry is a pretty obvious design pattern.

sombragris• 9 months ago

Instead of Jobs I would have liked to have Dennis Ritchie in that coin.

Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

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