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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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