Goal: To create a coin that reflects pop culture.

Role: Historian and Artist

Audience: The U.S. Mint

Situation:Imagine the U.S. Mint is planning to make a pop culture coin to represent each decade for the past 500 years (1520s-2020s). They have asked you to research a specific decade (10 year period) from the past and create a pop culture coin to represent that era. They give you the definition of pop culture as “things that are popular in society at a given time.”

Product: A coin design celebrating the pop culture of one of the decades from the past 500 years.

Task: Create a coin design by completing the following steps:

Look at examples of current pop culture coins by clicking through the following links:

- U.S. Mint Superheroes
- Dr. Seuss Coins
- New Zealand Mint New Releases

Pick a decade (10-year period) from the past 500 years (e.g., 1920s, 1970s, 1580s, 1770s).

Investigate what happened during your chosen decade, specifically focusing on pop culture:

- What kind of music was popular?
- What kind of clothing was popular?
- Who were the most influential people of the period?
- Were there any new inventions?

Design a coin (front and back, known as obverse and reverse) that represents the time period you have chosen. Include the following information:

- Design(s)/Images
- Year
- Denomination (how much the coin is worth)
- At least one inscription (phrase)

Answer the following questions using the online submission form:

- What decade did you choose?
- What is depicted on your coin?

Write one paragraph (3–5 sentences) explaining how your design represents the pop culture of the time period you chose.

Follow-up: Connect your coin design to a real coin from your chosen decade.

- Look at 3-5 actual coins from the same decade you used to design a coin.
- Based on your research, write a fiction story (five sentences or more) explaining how one person in that decade could connect with both the coin you designed and a real coin from the period. (See example below)

Imagine I designed a coin with Care Bears on it based on my decade selection of the 1980s.

Fiction story example: Mary Ellen Jennings tripped on her way in to the Video Spectrum, because she was in a hurry to rent a movie. You see, Gremlins had just come out on VHS, and Mary Ellen knew her Friday night would be better if she could just pop the most popular movie in her VCR. When she tripped, however, she didn’t realize that the $1.50 in her pocket had fallen on the curb. Once regaining her balance, she ran to the New Releases shelf to grab the very last copy! She strutted to the counter, excited to rent her movie, but as she reached into her pocket, all that was left of her $1.50 was a Washington quarter. She quickly realized that the other $1.25 must be on the curb. By the time Mary Ellen went to the curb, her money was gone, so she ran home to get more. Unfortunately, when she returned, the only new release available for rental was The Care Bears Movie.

Submission deadline is May 1, 2025.