Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: Act of July 23, 1965 (clad metal), October 10, 1978, and others.
Designer: Frank Gasparro.
Weight and composition: 125 grains (tolerance 4%); outer layers of .750 copper and .250 nickel bonded to inner core of pure copper.
Business strike mintage: 360,222,000.
Comment on availability, MS-65 or better: These constitute about 15% of the Mint State population, but enough exist that they are common.
Comment on availability, MS-64: Common. Comment on availability, MS-63: Common. Comment on availability, MS-60 to 62: Most extant Mint State coins are in this grade.
Comment on availablity; VF-20 to AU-58: Common, especially in higher levels such as AU.
Characteristics of striking: Usually-well struck. Known hoards of Mint State coins: Vast quantities held by the U.S. Treasury (as of 1993).
Proofs:
None.
Commentary
This, the introductory issue of the Anthony dollar, was widely criticized by the public, and was often mistaken for a quarter.
The Year 1979 in History
The energy crisis worsened in view of the political situation in Iran. On July 15, President Carter announced an energy conservation program which would limit oil imports arid reduce domestic use. Congress passed a bill authorizing $1.5 billion to bail out the Chrysler Corporation from its economic woes, following a presentation by its president, Lee Iacocca,who became an American folk hero as he subsequently turned the fortunes of the Chrysler Corporation around. Suggestionswere made that he could run the country and should throw hishat in the ring for president.
Problems continued in the economy, with the biggest increase in the consumer price index in 33 years-13.3%, known as "double digit inflation." The stock market remained stablewith the Dow-Jones Industrial Average standing at 838.4 atthe end of the year, an increase of 4.2% over the preceding 12 months, although a record 8.2 billion shares were traded.
The government continued its campaign against cigarettesmoking and on January 11, Surgeon General Julius B. Richmond declared that cigarettes were "the single most important environmental factor contributing to early death." Meanwhile, the United States government continued paying subsidies to the tobacco industry. In October, the Federal Reserve raisedthe discount rate to 12% in an effort to controlthe money supply, causing stock and bond prices to drop. Many banks raised the prime rate to 14.5%. Fear of holding moneyincreased, and people rushed to acquire tangible things including gold and silver, which rose to record prices. The Hunt brothers, Texas billionaires, endeavored to corner the worldmarket on silver bullion.
On November 8, it was announced that Robert W. Woodruff, retired from the Coca-Cola Company, planned to give $100 million to Emory University in Atlanta, the largest single gift in American history. On March 28, a malfunction occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant at the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the facility was shut down. Fears arose that a massive radiation leak might occur, but this did not happen. The space probe Pioneer II, which was launched in 1973, traveled by Saturn and discovered two new rings and an 11th moon. In October, Pope John Paul II visited the eastern and midwestern United States, the first pope to be greeted by a president in the White House.
In Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established a dictatorship. In November, revolutionaries took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and imprisoned over 50 hostages. On March 26 a peace treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel ending 30 years of war. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December.
Books published included The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth, Sophie's Choice by William Styron, Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut, and in the non-fiction category, A Streak of Luck by Robert Conot (a biography of Edison), and The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (a dramatization of the life and death of Gary Gilmore, executed in 1977).
The rare coin market experienced unbridled speculation and inflation, with many prices increasing to multiples of what they had been just a few years earlier. In November, the Garrett Collection of U.S. Coins, auctioned by Bowers and Ruddy Galleries on behalf of The Johns Hopkins University, saw $725,000 paid for the finest known specimen of the 1787 Brasher doubloon-a world's record price for any coin at auction, a figure that would stand for nearly a decade.