1st historical figures chosen for American Women Quarters program

Poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou and NASA astronaut Sally Ride are the first American women to be celebrated.

Expect a change in your pocket change next year. The United States Mint last month announced that poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou and NASA astronaut Sally Ride will be the first two women featured on the quarter as part of the American Women Quarters program. Twenty women will be featured on quarters through 2025, with up to five women honored per year as a result of the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020. "The Mint will issue circulating and numismatic quarter-dollar coins with reverse (tails) designs emblematic of the accomplishments and contributions of a prominent American woman beginning in January 2022," according to the United States Mint’s office.