Fifteen years after his death, Steve Jobs is about to receive one of the highest honors a country can bestow upon its citizens — commemoration on an official coin of the United States government. The U.S. Mint announced that in 2026, a special edition of the one-dollar coin bearing the image of Apple’s founder will be launched, as part of the “American Innovation” series dedicated to figures and breakthroughs that have influenced the nation’s technological history.
The design unveiled recently shows a young Jobs sitting thoughtfully before a landscape typical of Northern California — green hills covered with oaks — dressed in a black turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers, a style that over the years became his trademark. Beside his portrait is engraved the slogan “Make Something Wonderful” — a phrase that encapsulates the approach that characterized Jobs: Turning complex technology into something simple, human, and intuitive. The coin will also feature the inscriptions “Steve Jobs,” “California,” and “United States of America.”
The coin, with a face value of only one dollar but a far greater symbolic value, will be sold on the U.S. Mint’s website for $13.25 per unit. It will also be offered as part of a set including three additional coins dedicated to other inventors, for a total price of $27.50. Collectors will also be able to purchase rolls of 25 coins or bags of one hundred units.
The proposal to commemorate Jobs came from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who described him as someone who “embodies the spirit of California innovation — the courage to dream, to try, to fail, and to reinvent.” According to him, Jobs’s legacy continues to shape the way the world thinks about design, about human-computer interfaces, and about technology in general. The coin, he added, is not only a tribute to one individual but also a reminder of the power of a single idea to change entire industries — and sometimes even culture itself.