U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters Program 2022 quarters.
Credit: US Mint

Check your change for some new faces! The United States Mint has released the first of the American Women Quarters Program. The program will feature prominent women in American history. The mint is a place where coins are made. In the United States and most other countries, only the government may mint (manufacture) money. American mints are supervised by the United States Mint, a division of the Department of the Treasury. Mints now operate in Denver, Colorado; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Francisco, California; and West Point, N.Y. They make only coins.

The first five women featured on quarters will be the poet and scholar Maya Angelou, the first American woman in space Dr. Sally Ride, the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and activist Wilma Mankiller, the Hispanic suffragist and politician Nina Otero-Warren, and the trailblazing Asian American actress Anna May Wong.

On the other side of the quarter will be George Washington facing right, a design made by Laura Gardin Fraser. Fraser’s design was submitted for the 1932 commemorative quarter for George Washington’s 200th birthday. However, the treasury secretary chose a different design by John Flannigan.

The mint began shipping quarters featuring Maya Angelou on Jan. 10, 2022. Angelou was an American writer who drew from the Black American storytelling tradition. She wove humor, wisdom, and folk sayings into her writing. Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She spent much of her early life in Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou was best known for her series of autobiographical writings, especially I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). It tells about the author’s childhood in the segregated rural South and her transition to urban life. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, in 2011. Angelou died on May 28, 2014.

Make sure to keep an eye out for these legendary women in your pocket change. The mint will be releasing more quarters in the American Women Quarters program through 2025.