For more than 400 years, Native American designs have appeared on coins and currency struck by mints in North America. Beginning in 2015 though, the Native American Mint took the initiative to empower Native American tribes to tell their own stores through art on the issuance of silver coins. Right now, 2018 1 oz Proof Silver Nevada Shoshone Desert Tortoise Coins are available to purchase online at Silver.com.
Coin Highlights:
- Ships to you sealed in a protective plastic capsule!
- Fourteenth issue in the Native American Silver Dollar series and first coin design of 2018!
- Consists of One Troy ounce of .999 fine silver.
- Bears a face value of $1 backed by the sovereign nation of the Shoshone tribe.
- Obverse bears the imagery of Shoshone tribal people.
- Reverse includes the image of a desert tortoise species.
- NOT considered legal tender in the United States.
Each of these 2018 1 oz Proof Silver Nevada Shoshone Desert Tortoise Coins is part of the Native American Mint’s extensive Proof Silver Dollar Series. The coins are issued with a $1 face value by the Native American Mint and backed by the sovereign nation of issue; in this case the Shoshone. The United States Mint has the sole power in the US to issue legal tender currency, and as such these coins are considered proof rounds rather than coins by the US.
Represented in this release is the Shoshone tribe of North America. There are four major cultural and linguistic divisions within the Shoshone, and those residing in Nevada comprise the Western Shoshone and Gosiute (Goshute). The Western Shoshone historically resided throughout the Great Basin across the state of Nevada, reaching into northern Utah, southeastern Idaho, and the Mojave Desert of California.
The Gosiute, or Goshute, people are a tribe within the Western Shoshone with a dwindling population of just 673 people. There are two federally recognized tribes today, with the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation living in Nevada and Utah.
On the obverse of the 2018 1 oz Proof Silver Nevada Shoshone Desert Tortoise Coin you’ll find the effigy of a Shoshone representative. As of 2000, there are an estimated 12,300 people in the Shoshone tribe across the various cultural and linguistic divisions. The last federal government count prior to that of individual tribes came in 1937, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs counted 3,650 Northern Shoshone compared to 1,201 Western Shoshone.
The reverse of the Silver Nevada Shoshone Desert Tortoise Coin features a design of the desert tortoise. The species has two distinct types, the Gopherus agassizii and Gopherus morafkai. These names are in honor of the individuals who contributed to the study and conservation of the species: Swiss-American zoologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz and California State Univeristy-Dominguez Hills Professor David Joseph Morafka.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Silver.com. You can reach us at 888-989-7223, chat with us online, or simply email us.
