Photo: U.S. Mint
Back in 2018, U.S. Mint began its American Innovation Series. The special edition coins were meant to highlight unique contributions that symbolize “quintessentially American traits” of a willingness to explore, discover, and create one’s own destiny. In the action sports world, there are few stories or lives that fit that mold as well as Jake Burton and Burton snowboards. So when it came time for the state of Vermont to design its coin, the state called on the folks at Burton for a collaboration.
The company began work on the design in 2020 and on Tuesday Burton shared the first look at the brand new dollar coin — a snowboarder doing a melon grab with the rolling hills of Vermont in the background. The coin was available to collectors through the U.S. Mint website in a 100-coin bag ($117.50) and a 25-coin roll ($34.50) but it sold out almost immediately, according to Forbes.
“While the concept of riding a board downhill on snow has existed since at least the 1920s, and perhaps for centuries before, snowboarding’s technological development and transformation from a novel recreation to a worldwide phenomenon are tied closely to the state of Vermont,” Burton snowboards shared on Tuesday, adding that the coin represents, “Jake Burton Carpenter, Burton, and Vermont’s unique role in pioneering snowboarding’s art, community, and culture.”
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Jake Burton’s death rocked the snowboarding community in 2019. Burton had first fought testicular cancer in 2011. He won that initial battle and was later confronted with a rare nervous disorder called Guillain-Barré syndrome that caused him temporary but complete paralysis in 2015. In November 2019, Burton shared the news that his cancer had returned and he passed less than two weeks later.
“Who actually invented snowboarding seems an ongoing historical debate but there’s little doubt Jake Burton Carpenter helped create the modern pursuit. In 1977, he relocated from New York City to Vermont to form Burton Snowboards and competed in the sport’s earliest competitions. He helped organize the first US Open Snowboarding Championship in 1982. And, of course, in 1998 it entered the Olympic realm,” The Inertia’s Joe Carberry wrote after his death.
“Put simply, snowboarding wouldn’t be what it is without Jake Burton Carpenter.”
