New Quarters Feature Images of Women

Beginning in 2022 and continuing through 2025, the US Mint will issue up to five new designs each year.

The American Women Quarters Program is a new four-year coin program honoring the historic contributions of twenty trailblazing American women. These distinguished women will be honored on the 2022 quarters:

• Maya Angelou – celebrated writer, performer, and social activist

• Dr. Sally Ride – physicist, astronaut, educator, and first American woman in space

• Wilma Mankiller – first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation

• Nina Otero-Warren – a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools

• Anna May Wong – first Chinese American film star in Hollywood

The quarter honoring the civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou will enter circulation in February 2022. Angelou’s quarter features her profile with the backdrop of a flying bird, an homage to her poetry.

The second quarter to be released features the astronaut Dr. Sally Ride in uniform next to an image of Earth. The quarter honoring Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, portrays her wrapped in a traditional shawl, standing next to the Cherokee Nation’s seven-pointed star. Otero-Warren’s quarter shows the state flower of New Mexico, as well as the slogan, “Voto para la mujer,” in honor of her voting rights work. Wong, one of the first Chinese-American Hollywood stars, is encircled by marquee lights on her quarter.

Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, began drafting legislation on the coin program with help from Rosa Rios, the Treasury official who oversaw the United States Mint under former President Barack Obama. The Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act was signed into law in 2020.

The new quarters are an excellent way to remind future generations what can be accomplished with vision, determination, and a desire to improve opportunities for all. The women featured had to be deceased as well as influential in a myriad of fields and time periods including civil rights, the women’s suffrage movement, government, the humanities, or science.

Look for the new quarters in your change. Or shop online at catalog.usmint.gov to ensure you receive the complete collection!

Biographies

Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was a civil rights activist, poet and writer best known for her 1969 memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” She wrote this book — which documents her childhood in Arkansas and her experiences of racism as a young Black woman — following her efforts to aid Black leaders across the nation, including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. In 1993, she became the first woman to be the inaugural poet in US history, reciting “On the Pulse of Morning,” during former President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. She wrote seven autobiographies, three essay books and many other pieces that were adapted for the screen over the years. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,” Angelou said.

Dr. Sally Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) became the first American woman—and youngest American—to fly in space on June 18, 1983, on the Challenger space shuttle after NASA changed its policy to allow women astronauts in space in the late 1970s. Ride was studying physics and English at Stanford University when she saw her student newspaper run an ad looking for astronauts. She applied right away and was one of just six women selected to train. In 1986, when the Challenger shuttle exploded, killing all on board, Ride was one of the top investigators looking into the tragedy. In 2001, Ride co-founded Sally Ride Science, which aimed to motivate primarily young women and girls to explore the science and space fields largely dominated by men.

Wilma Mankiller (November 18, 1945 – April 6, 2010) was the first woman to be principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and the first woman elected as chief of a major tribe. She dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of Indigenous people. Her activism began in 1969 through her support of a group of American Indians who took over the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island on San Francisco Bay to expose the suffering of Indigenous people in America. She became the director of Oakland’s Native American Youth Center and then later founded the Community Development Department for the Cherokee Nation, where she worked to improve access to water and housing.

Nina Otero-Warren (October 23, 1881 – January 3, 1965) was a leader in New Mexico’s women’s suffrage movement and the first woman to be superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe. Within the suffrage movement, she fought to include Spanish to reach more Hispanic women, and emphasized the need to publish suffrage material in both Spanish and English, making the movement more accessible. She also led the effort to ratify the 19th amendment in New Mexico. She worked tirelessly to include bicultural education in New Mexico and honor the cultural practices of the state’s Indigenous communities. In 1917, she was appointed as superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe, where she focused on promoting adult education programs and improving the physical conditions of schools.

Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood and appeared in over 60 movies, as well as starring in roles on television and on the stage. Growing up, she worked in her family’s laundry business while attending Chinese language classes after school. But when the film industry moved from New York City to California, she started visiting movie sets and was cast in her first starring role in “The Toll of the Sea” in 1922. After working in the United States for years, Wong moved abroad because of the discrimination she experienced in the American film industry. Later in her life, she became an activist, raising money and advocating for Chinese refugees during World War II. She was the first Asian American to lead a US television show, “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong.”