WASHINGTON – The United States Mint (Mint) is pleased to announce the addition of the following women to be honored during the first year of the American Women Quarters™ Program:
Wilma Mankiller – the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and an activist for Native American and women’s rights;
Adelina Otero-Warren – a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools; and
Anna May Wong – the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, achieving international success despite racism and discrimination. Designs reflecting the achievements of Mankiller, Otero-Warren, and Wong, along with those of celebrated author Maya Angelou and trailblazing astronaut Dr. Sally Ride, will be featured on circulating and numismatic American Women Quarters Program coins beginning in 2022.
The first coins in the American Women s Quarter Series will feature Maya Angelou and Sally Ride (Credit US Mint)
The quarter dollar is both the most commonly-used coin in the American currency and the most unique. Since 1999, the coin s reverse, or tails, side has showcased all 50 US states, as well as the breathtaking beauty of the country s national parks. Now, the US Mint plans to use the silver canvas to celebrate female leaders who have played a crucial part in shaping the nation s history.
The American Women s Quarter Program, which was unveiled on April 12, 2021, will last four years. According to the US Mint, it will feature 20 women “from a wide spectrum of fields including, but not limited to, suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts. The leaders will come from “ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse backgrounds.” While the quarter s front, or obverse, side, will continue to feature a likeness of the