The U.S. mint has revealed images showing what a series of quarters will look like that will be released starting next year and feature trailblazing American women on the reverse side of the coins.
From 2022 through 2025, five new designs will be released each year under the American Women Quarters Program.
Next year’s coins will depict poet, author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou; astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be the Cherokee Nation’s principal chief; Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement; and Anna May Wong, the first Hollywood film star of Chinese American descent.
“These inspiring coin designs tell the stories of five extraordinary women whose contributions are indelibly etched in American culture,” said Alison L. Doone, acting director of the U.S. Mint.
The designs — created and sculpted under a U.S. Mint program — will be on the back side of the coins; George Washington will still be featured on the front, though Washington’s likeness will be different from the one we see on other quarters.
His side of the 2022 quarters was created by early 20th century sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser, whose design of a portrait of Washington was first considered for a 1932 coin that marked his 200th birthday.
Ride’s coin shows her next to a window on the space shuttle, inspired by her quotation, “But when I wasn’t working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth.”
Mankiller, who was an activist for native women’s rights, is shown wrapped in a traditional shawl with the Cherokee Nation seven-pointed star. “Cherokee Nation” is written in Cherokee syllabary.
The American Women Quarters Program was developed and approved by Congress this year to celebrate the contributions of notable, deceased women in the United States.
Read more at USA Today.
