Maya Angelou Becomes The First Black Woman To Appear On The U.S. Quarter

The United States Mint (Mint) has begun shipping the first coins in the American Women Quarters™ (AWQ) Program. Maya Angelou is the first Black woman and the initial coin to kick off the series circulating in late January and early February 2022. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) is the House sponsor who led this American Women Quarters™ (AWQ) bill legislation which began in 2017.

Beginning in 2022 and continuing through 2025, the Mint will issue five quarters within each of these years. The ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse group of individuals honored through this program reflects a wide range of accomplishments and fields, including suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts. Coins featuring additional honorees will begin shipping later this year and include:

1.) Maya Angelou – Leader in the civil rights movement, poet laureate, college professor, Broadway actress, dancer, and first female African American cable car conductor in San Francisco.

2.) Dr. Sally Ride – Physicist and first woman astronaut.

3.) Wilma Mankiller – First female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and activist for Native American and women’s rights.

4.) Nina Otero-Warren – Leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools.

5.) Anna May Wong – First Chinese American film star in Hollywood.

Historically, the first time a woman appeared overall on U.S. currency was in 2000 when gold $1 Sacagawea coins went into circulation. Sacagawea coins honor the Indigenous woman who helped the Lewis and Clark expedition explore the Louisiana Purchase territory.

ABOUT THE DESIGN: The obverse design is common to all quarters issued in the series. The obverse (heads) depicts a portrait of George Washington composed initially and sculpted by Laura Gardin Fraser to mark George Washington’s 200th birthday.

The reverse (tails), designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) Artist Emily Damstra and sculpted by United States Mint Medallic Artist Craig A. Campbell, depicts Maya Angelou with her arms uplifted. Behind her are a bird in flight and a rising sun, images inspired by her poetry and symbolic of how she lived.  

Inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “MAYA ANGELOU,” “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” and “QUARTER DOLLAR.”