Raye Montague One Dollar Coin

The United States Mint issued a commemorative $1 coin in January 2025 honoring Little Rock (Pulaski County) native Raye Jean Jordan Montague for her contributions in the fields of engineering and computer design.

In 1971, Montague, who was a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy, became the first person to use a computer to design a United States naval ship. Over the course of about eighteen hours, she created the first draft for the FFG-7 Frigate (an Oliver Hazard Perry–class, or Perry-class, ship).

Montague received the U.S. Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 1972 and later became the first female professional engineer to receive the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Achievement Award; she also received the National Computer Graphics Association Award for the Advancement of Computer Graphics.

Other projects Montague worked on for the navy included the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and the navy’s first landing craft helicopter-assault ship (LHA). The last project with which she was affiliated was the Seawolf-class submarine (SSN-21).

She retired from the navy in 1990 and returned to Arkansas in 2006 after living in the Washington DC area for fifty years. She was inducted into both the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame. Montague died on October 9, 2018.

The coin is part of the United States Mint’s American Innovation $1 Coin Program, a multi-year series started in 2018 to celebrate innovation and innovators across all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Montague, whose coin was the first for 2025, was nominated for the program in 2023 by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders said in a statement: “Arkansas is thrilled to be featured on the $1 Coin and proud that Raye Montague—a native Arkansan, groundbreaking naval engineer, and the definition of American Innovation—will be the Natural State’s representative.”

Montague’s son, Dr. David Montague, is associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the author, along with Paige Bowers, of the 2021 book Overnight Code: The Life of Raye Montague, the Woman Who Revolutionized Naval Engineering.

As a child living in Maryland, David Montague was introduced to coin collecting by his mother. He was included in the design process for the commemorative coin and provided the Mint with photographs and information about his mother’s life, work, and accomplishments.

The final design was created by Artistic Infusion Program Designer Elana Hagler and sculpted by United States Mint Medallic Artist Eric David Custer. It includes a depiction of Raye Montague’s face alongside a U.S. Navy Perry-class frigate. A grid-like sea background represents the engineering and drafting skills she pioneered. “ARKANSAS,” “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” and “RAYE MONTAGUE” are inscribed on the coin.

David Montague was informed of the final design in 2024 when he took part in the ceremony renaming the Maritime Technology Information Center of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division in Bethesda, Maryland, to the Raye Montague Center for Maritime Technology. “The chosen design is the one I loved most,” he said in a news release. “It captures her face, the ship she designed, and a computer grid over the ocean. My mom was very patriotic, and the design shows her holding her hand over her heart. Its simplicity is beautiful.”

For additional information:
“American Innovation $1 Coin 2025 Rolls and Bags – Arkansas.” United States Mint. https://www.usmint.gov/american-innovation-1-coin-2025-rolls-and-bags-arkansas-MASTER_INNOVATIONAR.html (accessed June 4, 2025).

Clancy, Sean. “Arkansan’s Feat Right on Money.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 23, 2025, p. 1B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/feb/22/opinion-paper-trails-ship-design-pioneer-raye/ (accessed June 4, 2025).

Sean Clancy
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette