From the Arts to the Stars: Women Honored on the Quarter in 2022
From 2022 to 2025, the American Women Quarter series will honor 20 women who have had a massive impact on American life and culture. The five women who will grace the reverse of the quarter in 2022 have been revealed and include such luminaries as Maya Angelou, Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller, Adelina Otero-Warren, and Anna May Wong. Each of these women have influenced American history in different ways.
Known for her writing and social activism, the first woman honored as part of the American Women Quarter series is Maya Angelou. Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, Angelou would go on to write seven autobiographies about different periods in her life. Many accolades and honorifics have been given to Angelou, such as Grammy, Pulitzer and Tony nominations, and is one of only six Inaugural Poets. Her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” inspired the bird silhouette reverse on her 2022 Quarter.
What better woman to honor on American coinage than the stellar Dr. Sally Ride? Through tennis and science scholarships, Ride attended Stanford University where she would earn a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Master of Science degree in physics and finally a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Then, in 1977, when Ride was only 26 years old, she applied for NASA where she would become the first American woman in space. Designed by Elana Hagler, Ride’s obverse showcases her time with NASA, looking down at the earth from space.
The third woman to be honored in the American Women Quarter series is Wilma Mankiller. Known for being the first woman elected chief of the Cherokee Nation, Mankiller revitalized the community with improvements to health care and education. In 1998, President Bill Clinton bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Mankiller for her work. The design of her reverse includes the Cherokee Nation’s seven-pointed star as well as the name for her people written in the Cherokee language.
Representing the suffragist movement, Nina Otero-Warren will also be honored with a coin design later this year. From 1917 to 1929 she acted as superintendent of Santa Fe public schools, being the first woman to do so and, later on, was the first Latina to run for Congress. Otero-Warren's design displays New Mexico’s state flower, the yucca.
The final woman to be honored on the American Women Quarter series in 2022 is Anna May Wong. As the first Chinese American Hollywood star, Wong has more than earned her place among the other women chosen for this series. Fighting for more lead roles for Asian women, Wong traveled to Europe to play more varied roles. In 1960, she was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before dying the next year.
These five women make up just the first year of the American Women Quarter series which will go on until 2025. The US Mint has just announced that the women honored in 2023 will include First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as well as Hawaiian entertainer Edith Kanakaʻole. Rare Collectibles TV will keep you updated on new developments in coinage and we currently have some of the finest examples of the American Women Quarters series available.
