Steve Jobs to Be Honored on 2026 American Innovation $1 Coin
The United States Mint will feature Steve Jobs on a commemorative $1 coin next year, as apart of the 2026 American Innovation Coin Program, according to a press release from the US Mint.
The program originally launched in 2018 to honor significant innovators from each US state. Steve Jobs will represent California, highlighting his roll in transforming the tech landscape of not only California, but also the globe. Steve Jobs was suggested to be on the coin by California governor Gavin Newsom, and the President Trump-led US Mint approved and adopted the idea and design, proving that bipartisan collaboration is alive and well in the United States, at least when it comes to commemorative coins.
The $1 coins design portrays a young Steve Jobs seated Indian-style in front of rolling hills and oak trees. But, if we are being honest, it doesn’t entirely look quite like Steve Jobs, and as CultOfMac hilariously pointed out, the portrait “makes Apple’s late leader look like a young Ellen Degeneres”. If it were me in the design phase, I might have chosen a more amusing and iconoclastic picture of Jobs to base the design on, but I’m guessing the US Mint would not have approved that.
The Steve Jobs coin includes a few inscriptions that say “STEVE JOBS” and “MAKE SOMETHING WONDERFUL”, as well as inscriptions that reference California and the United States of America. If that sounds familiar to you, “make something wonderful” is also the name of a free Steve Jobs book available from his namesake archives, referencing a famous quote of Jobs.
The Steve Jobs coin is set to launch next year and will be available for purchasing through the US Mint website. The coin has a face value of $1, but to buy a coin from the Mint you’ll have to pay $13.25 each. Maybe they should just make a bunch of these and issue them as standard coinage, so that people actually use and circulate them?
