She's So Money

Sacagawea and her sculptor on coin bring riches to the auction block.

- Meghan Saar

Sacagawea played a major role in the success of the first American expedition to cross the western portion of the United States. The teenaged Lemhi Shoshoni interpreter, peacemaker and guide rose to fame after traveling from 1804 to 1806 on that “long dangerous and fatigueing rout to the Pacific Ocean and back,” wrote Lewis and Clark Expedition leader William Clark.

Her courageous accomplishment led to Sacagawea becoming, in 2000, the first woman minted on U.S. money…by a woman.

Glenna Goodacre designed the $1 golden coin—featuring Sacagawea carrying her infant son Jean Baptiste on her back, like she had during her famous journey—after the famous sculptor’s design won a contest. Yet she was not the first woman chosen to design a coin for national circulation.