The United States Mint has launched its American Women Quarters™ Program. In a four-year period from 2022 to 2025, the Mint will honour the works and accomplishments of 20 American women by placing their images on new 25 cent coins. The American Women Quarters Program is authorised by the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020.
The obverse of each of the coins in the series will feature a portrait of George Washington facing right, originally composed and sculpted by Laurer Gardin Fraser, the first woman to design a US coin. It was the recommended design for the 1932 quarter to mark Washington’s 200th birthday, but then-Treasury Secretary Mellon ultimately selected the left-facing John Flannigan design instead. The Mint used Fraser’s George Washington design prior to this on a 1999 gold commemorative coin marking the 200th anniversary of Washington’s death.
To mark the start of the American Women Quarters Program, the Mint released coins bearing the image of writer, performer and activist Maya Angelou who is best known for her 1969 memoir, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, and is depicted on the coin with her arms outstretched in front of a rising sun and a bird in flight. The design for this first of five new coins to be released this year was created by US Mint Artistic Infusion Programme Artist, Emily Damstra; the Mint’s Medallic Artist, Craig A Campbell, sculpted it.
First Coin in American Women Quarters Series. George Washington is on the obverse (and in all 20 coins in the series) and Maya Angelou is depicted on the reverse with her arms outstretched in front of a rising sun and a bird in flight.The women featured in the series are those whose contributions are from a variety of fields such as suffrage, civil rights, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts. The women honoured will be from ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse backgrounds.
‘Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country – what we value, and how we’ve progressed as a society. I’m very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America’s most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou,’ said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Dr Sally Ride, a physicist, astronaut, educator and the first American woman to travel into space in June 1983 on the shuttle Challenger, will be featured on the second coin. She is depicted on the coin in her official jacket with a view of the earth from space in the background.
2nd coin in series – Dr Sally Ride.The other three women featured this year are Wilma Mankiller, Adelina Otero-Warren and Anna May Wong.
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman elected as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of indigenous people.
Adelina Otero-Warren was the first woman superintendent of Santa Fe public schools and a top leader of New Mexico’s suffrage movement, leading efforts to give American women the right to vote.
Anna May Wong was the first Chinese film star in Hollywood, appearing in more than 60 movies. However, despite her fame she faced significant discrimination and eventually left the USA. She was also an activist and raised money and advocated for Chinese refugees during WWII.
Five new quarters will be created and issued for each of the four years of the programme, all 20 coins in the series celebrating American Women and their contributions to American history with each quarter designed to reflect the breadth and depth of US women’s accomplishments.
Although the coins from this series will circulate, only limited quantities will be produced. However, people can sign up to receive all four annual instalments as they become available.
The American Women Quarters Program is the fourth of its kind from the US Mint.
The first, launched in 1999, was the 50 State Quarters program – a 10-year initiative that honoured each of the nation’s states in the order that they ratified the Constitution or were admitted into the Union. Minted from 1999 through to 2008, they featured unique designs for each of the states on the reverse.
The objective of the program was to support a new generation of coin collectors, and it became the most successful numismatic program in the nation’s history, with roughly half of the US population collecting the coins, either in a casual manner or as a serious pursuit. It also generated extraordinary public interest as millions of citizens participated in their state’s design selection process or attended their state’s quarter launch.
Moreover, the federal government benefited from an additional $3 billion in seigniorage from collectors taking the coins out of circulation. 34.8 billion coins were minted under the program.
Following its completion, 2009 saw the District of Columbia and US Territories Program, with coins honouring the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
This was followed, in 2010, with the America the Beautiful Quarters Program, which lasted until 2021. The coins in the series of 56 quarters each commemorated a national natural or historic site such as national parks, a national historic site, or national forests – one from each state, the federal district, and each territory.
Looking ahead, under the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 the latest program will be succeeded by a series commemorating the United States Semiquincentennial in 2026, and a series depicting youth sports from 2027 to 2030.
