Linclusion imprinted on the most used currency in the US, the 25 cents. With the’American Women Quarters Program the United States Mint will celebrate five illustrious female figures, of different origins.
Women who have distinguished themselves in various fields related to politics, science and the arts. And it will not be collectible items, but of pieces produced in large quantities for everyday use.
Inaugurates the poet Maya Angelou
The first image depicted is that of African American poet and activist Maya Angelou which becomes the first African American to be stamped on the quarter dollar.
Following her will be the astronaut and physicist Sally Ridem, the first Native American to lead the Cherokee nation, Wilpoma Mankiller, political and militant of Hispanic origin Nina Otero-Warrren and the actress Anna May Wong, first Hollywood star of Asian descent.
On the other side of the coin it will obviously continue to be there US founding father George Washington designed by Laura Gardin Fraser in 1932 who, according to the United States Mint, was the first woman to design a US commemorative coin.
Maya Angelou, powerful voice against racism
Prominent activist in the civil rights movement, worked with leaders such as Malcolm X And Martin Luther King Jr. In 1944, at the age of 16, she gave birth to a son and started and did everything to survive. Including the hooker and the stripper. Until the moment he decided that his voice “was powerful” and had to be used for denounce the injustices of society.
And so in his beautiful memoir of 1969 “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings“(” I know why the bird in the cage sings “) the poet who received the presidential medal of freedom from Barack Obama, then disappeared in 2014, speaks of racism and the abuse suffered as a child from the partner of the mother.
On the coin like a bird in flight
And it is just like a bird in flight, with her arms raised and with a rising sun behind her, that Angelou is portrayed by the coin designer, also in this case a woman, Emily Damstra along with sculptor Craig A. Campbell.
Janet Yellen: “Our coins speak to the country”
“Every time we redesign our currency,” he said Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary, “we have the opportunity to say something about our country, on the values that matter to us and on the progress we have made as a company. I am very proud of these coins that celebrate the contribution of some of the most noteworthy women in our country“.
The quarter dollar has had some alternative versions such as the series of 50 pieces representing the same number of US states, at the beginning of the 2000s, and the parks and national sites, from 2010 to 2021.
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