2019-D Pennsylvania Innovation Dollar in BU

The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Pennsylvania honors the discovery of the polio vaccine in 1953 by Dr. Jonas Salk and his team. In 1947, the University of Pittsburgh hired Dr. Jonas Salk to develop a polio vaccine. At the time, polio was a devastating disease disproportionately affecting children and young adults, leaving many of them paralyzed. In 1953, the university announced that Salk’s team had discovered a vaccine they believed could prevent the disease. After two years of clinical trials, the first of which were conducted in southwestern Pennsylvania, the vaccine was determined to be safe and effective. Its subsequent, widespread administration to millions of Americans effectively eliminated polio and helped usher in a new era of virology.