Sunoco Millennium Coins

"Fill 'er up!" In 1999, customers at Sunoco gas stations could buy one of ten collectible brass tokens depicting pivotal events in American history, events which I really don't feel the need to go into too much detail about within this article, since most of them have been or will be covered in the ongoing The LIFE Millennium series.

First, though, a brief history of Sunoco. I'm going to go over the most interesting highlights in a cursory way.

1886: Joseph Pew and Edward Emerson, partners at Pittsburgh's Peoples Natural Gas, expanded from natural gas to oil.
1890: Sun Oil Company opens for business.
1920: The first Sunoco service station opens up. From the way the site talks about it, it could only have been the first service station of its kind in the United States.
1956: You know how you can select 87, 89, and 93 at the gas pump? Those numbers represent the octane rating and the specific blend you're putting into your car. Thank Sunoco for that innovation--they invented and introduced the custom-blend pump, which saved valuable space at their service stations.

1999: Sunoco releases this coin set:

Detail shots of the coins:

1 and 2: Columbus Discovers America; Declaration of Independence

3 and 4: Signing of the Constitution; Emancipation Proclamation

5 and 6: First Telephone; First Automobile

7: Wright Brothers' First Flight



8: American Women's Right to Vote

9: Moon Landing

10: The Third Millennium

--> BONUS: What each coin looks like from the back. Fairly prosaic--it's the Sunoco logo, with the words, "THE SUNOCO MILLENNIUM COIN SERIES," "1999," and the coin number.