New California $1 coin honors Steve Jobs and his Pixar legacy
The new California $1 coin features Steve Jobs and highlights the Apple co-founder’s influence beyond Silicon Valley, including his role in Pixar’s rise. U.S. Mint A new $1 coin honoring Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder whose local influence stretched from Silicon Valley to Pixar, will become available to the public this week. The coin depicts a young Jobs sitting before oak-covered Northern California hills, a design meant to connect his technology legacy with the state’s natural landscape. The reverse side includes the inscriptions “Steve Jobs” and “Make something wonderful.” Gov. Gavin Newsom chose Jobs to represent California in the U.S. Mint’s American Innovation $1 Coin Program, a federal series honoring innovators and innovations from every state. “The innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of Steve Jobs embodied the best of California, creating the future we all know today,” Newsom said in a statement Monday, May 11. “His tenacity and fearless pursuit of the California Dream made so many American dreams possible.” Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and grew up in Mountain View and Los Altos, part of what is now known as the Silicon Valley. He co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976, helping shape some of the most recognizable consumer technology products of the past half century, including the Apple II, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad. His legacy also runs through Pixar, the award-winning Emeryville animation studio behind the “Toy Story” film franchise. The new California $1 coin features Steve Jobs and highlights the Apple co-founder’s influence beyond Silicon Valley, including his role in Pixar’s rise. U.S. Mint Jobs bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm in 1986, turning it into Pixar Animation Studios. He was credited as an executive producer on “Toy Story,” released in 1995 as the first fully computer-animated feature film. When Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, Jobs became Disney’s largest individual shareholder. The California coin was designed by Los Angeles artist Elana Hagler and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, based in Philadelphia. The front of American Innovation coins features the Statue of Liberty, with the year, mint mark and “e pluribus unum” inscribed on the edge. The Jobs coin is the third American Innovation $1 coin released for 2026, following Iowa and Wisconsin designs. “Steve Jobs was a remarkable innovator and transformed how the world connects and communicates,” Paul Hollis, director of the U.S. Mint, said in a statement. “Through this coin, the Mint honors his incredible work and recognizes his importance to both California and the United States.” The rolls and bags of the coin are scheduled to go on sale through the U.S. Mint on Tuesday, May 12.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle