The Susan B. Anthony dollar is a U.S. dollar coin that was minted from
1979 to 1981, when the series was suspended due to poor public
reception, and briefly minted again in 1999. It was proposed as a
replacement for the cumbersome Eisenhower dollar. A round planchet with
an eleven-sided inner border, acceptable to the vending machine industry
(a powerful lobby affecting coin legislation), was chosen for the
smaller dollar. Social reformer Susan B. Anthony was selected for the
obverse side; on the reverse, the design of the Eisenhower dollar was
retained. Both sides of the coin were designed by Frank Gasparro, the
Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. The Mint struck 500 million
coins, but these entered circulation slowly, in part because of
confusion caused by their similarity in size and appearance to the
quarter. A final run of these dollar coins was struck in 1999 to
compensate for the slow production of the Sacagawea dollar, authorized
in 1997. Susan B. Anthony dollars are still plentiful, including many in
uncirculated condition, so they hold little extra value for collectors.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1476:
With the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Báthory, Vlad
the Impaler became the ruler of Wallachia for the third time after
forcing Basarab Laiotă to flee to the Ottoman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units captured
Fort Washington from the Patriots.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Washington>
1967:
Aeroflot Flight 2230 crashed after takeoff from Koltsovo
Airport, Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), killing all 107 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_2230>
1992:
In Suffolk, England, a local man found the largest hoard of
Roman silver and gold in Britain (sample pictured), including the
largest collection of 4th/5th-century gold and silver coins ever
discovered within the former Roman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoxne_Hoard>
1997:
Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng was released for "medical
reasons" after spending 17½ of the previous 18 years in prison, and was
deported to the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Jingsheng>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vog:
Air pollution caused by substances (such as sulphur dioxide) emitted by
a volcano.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vog>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
One persistent strand in utopian thinking, as we have often
mentioned, is the feeling that there is some set of principles obvious
enough to be accepted by all men of good will, precise enough to give
unambiguous guidance in particular situations, clear enough so that all
will realize its dictates, and complete enough to cover all problems
which actually arise. Since I do not assume that there are such
principles, I do not presume that the political realm will whither away.
The messiness of the details of a political apparatus and the details of
how it is to be controlled and limited do not fit easily into one's
hopes for a sleek, simple utopian scheme.
--Robert Nozick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Nozick>