Born in Seattle and raised there and in Japan, George Tsutakawa (1910-1997) was an internationally recognized painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde fountain designs. He taught in the art and architecture departments at the university of Washington for 34 years, retiring in 1976. He described the design for this coin as follows: “The spirit of Century 21 is the adventure of man reaching out into space unknown away from his domicile of centuries past. The obverse design depicts the home of the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle, Washington where great minds assemble to show the people the world their scientific achievements and future plans. The reverse design is an image of the little known outer space, with all its vastness, richness and complexity of rhythm and motion of the stars and the moons and their planets which man hopes to penetrate by the perfection of science and technology.”