who was on the 1979 silver dollar

[Mackenzie]

Ah, the 1979 dollar coin! That's a fun one with a bit of an identity crisis. The face gracing that particular dollar is none other than the trailblazing suffragist Susan B. Anthony. In a historic move, she became the first real, non-allegorical woman to be featured on a circulating U.S. coin. It was a big deal to honor a woman who fought so tirelessly for equality.

Now, about that "silver" part of your question. I hate to be the bearer of less-than-precious news, but the 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar is actually a silver-dollar impostor. It's made of a copper-nickel clad, not the shiny stuff its predecessors were famous for. This, combined with its new, smaller size, made it famously unpopular.

People were constantly mistaking the dollar coin for a quarter, which led to a lot of frustration and vending machine mishaps. So while it featured a true American hero on the front and a majestic eagle landing on the moon on the back, the "Carter Quarter," as it was sometimes nicknamed, never quite won the public's affection. It was a dollar in value, but a quarter in vibe.