Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

usmint.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 296 posts

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

#71

Post by kotaKat »

Findecanor wrote: post #35
ErikCorry wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's coming in 2026: https://san.com/cc/us-money-cant-feature-living-people-why-t...

Weird design. The side with "Liberty" has the face of Donald Trump and "1776–2026", but he isn't dead. Oh ...

'Cause they're using loopholes.

HR 1923 ("Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020") [0]: "No head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included in the design on the reverse of specified coins"

Well... the reverse certainly isn't a head-and-shoulders portrait or bust...

[0]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1923

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

#72

Post by api »

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.

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

#74

Post by bombcar »

RobotToaster wrote: post #16
ta12653421 wrote: post #9

are these meant for regular circulation or are these "collection items"? (Im not from the US, so Im not aware of local specifics)

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…

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.

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

#76

Post by rkomorn »

redeux wrote: post #70
rkomorn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

$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.

Okay, awesome point.

Meanwhile, in my 25 years of living in the US (NJ, SoCal, and NorCal), I can count on one hand the number of times I've come across them "in the wild".

I started collecting them in 2004 by keeping every one I ran into in person and I now have: 3.

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

#77

Post by bombcar »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #57
firesteelrain wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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...

Some places have moved ahead with it because supply is already constrained: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/10/06/kwik-trip-ditches-p...

(Note this is the way to do it, instead of splitting the difference fairly, they’re just always rounding down - eating a few cents here and there)

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

#78

Post by bombcar »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #43
cjk wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

They should be available from the mint in collector’s tins, and available in circulation from eBay and similar.

They’re great to use as board game coins; much nicer than plastic chits.

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

#79

Post by pk-protect-ai »

themafia wrote: post #28

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.

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...

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

#80

Post by strogonoff »

rkomorn wrote: post #42
blauditore wrote: post #39

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

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).

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...
Post reply on HN