American Women quarters facts for kids

The American Women quarters program will be a series of quarters featuring notable women in U.S. history, commemorating the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The United States Mint will issue up to five designs each year from 2022 to 2025 for up to 20 total designs. One woman will be honored on the reverse of each coin, selected for "contributions to the United States in a wide spectrum of accomplishments and fields, including but not limited to suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space, and arts." The obverse will depict George Washington with a new design.

The program was authorized by the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, sponsored by Representatives Barbara Lee and Anthony Gonzalez. The original proposal was for 56 quarters, honoring one woman from each state and territory, but with a set of circulating coins intended to be released in 2026 for the United States Semiquincentennial, it was amended to be shorter. One of the five quarters in that set will also feature a woman. It replaced an alternative proposal of quarters featuring animals or endangered species. It will be followed in 2027–2030 with a series depicting youth sports.

It succeeds the America the Beautiful quarters and Washington Crossing the Delaware quarter. Some coin collectors were critical of the "seemingly unending" proposal to continue to issue five new quarter designs every year for a third decade. Many numismatists are more interested in redesigns of other denominations and less frequent releases.

Designs

Obverse

Laura Gardin Fraser's portrait of George Washington, which was originally submitted in 1931, was selected by the Commission of Fine Arts and Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee to appear on the obverse of the American Women quarters. The right-facing bust had been used for the 1999 George Washington half eagle for the 200th anniversary of Washington's death.

Reverse

The United States Secretary of the Treasury selects the women featured for the series in consultation with the Smithsonian Institution's American Women's History Initiative, the National Women's History Museum, and the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues. Recommendations for women honorees were solicited from the public in 2021.

Honorees to be featured in 2022 include Maya Angelou (the first Black woman featured on U.S. currency), Sally Ride (the first LGBT person on U.S. currency), Wilma Mankiller, Adelina Otero-Warren (the first Hispanic American on U.S. currency), and Anna May Wong (the first Asian American on U.S. currency).

Honorees to be featured in 2023 include Bessie Coleman, Jovita Idár, Edith Kanakaʻole, Eleanor Roosevelt and Maria Tallchief.

List of designs

See also

In Spanish: American Women quarters para niños