The United States Mint has now released the designs for the 2026 American Innovation $1 Coin Program, including two related to computing - Steve Jobs and the Cray-1 supercomputer. 

The American Innovation $1 Coin Program, launched in 2018 by the U.S. Mint, aims to highlight ingenuity in the U.S.A. Each state, territory, and the District of Columbia can create its own coin recognizing an innovation or innovator from its region, and the coin will be minted by the U.S. Mint.

As we reported back in February, it was the state of California that nominated Steve Jobs, while Wisconsin nominated the Cray-1 supercomputer.  The other two coins in next year's set honor Dr. Norman Borlaug for his work on developing resilient crops capable of feeding a growing global population, and the development of mobile refrigeration. 

California nominated Steve Jobs on the grounds that he:

"was able to use technology to connect people to each other and to the broader world, bringing people onto the same level by providing them with equal access."

The first Cray-1 was delivered to Los Alamos Lab in March 1976, and at that time was the fastest machine available. By using a vector processor it could perform the sort of arithmetic needed to solve many scientific problems. In addition to being a fast vector processor the Cray-1 was also the fastest scalar processor of its time. Although it is difficult to be precise about the power of the Cray-1. claiming a top speed of 100Mflops (i.e. 100 million floating point operations per second) is reasonable.

The design on the Steve Jobs coin shows him sitting cross-legged in front of a northern California landscape of hills with oak trees, wearing a turtle-neck sweater. The designer says Jobs is "captured in a moment of reflection, show how this environment inspired his vision to transform complex technology into something as intuitive and organic as nature itself". 

The design on the Cray-1 coin is a stylized aerial view of the Cray-1 supercomputer, the classic C shape. The designer for this coin says the image emphasizes the Cray-1 not only through its shape, but also by suggesting the shape of a “C” for Cray-1 and “computer.”  

The coins will be available next year.

More Information

U.S. Mint American Innovation Coins

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