The American Women Quarters Program honored twenty women from 2022 through 2025 while introducing Laura Gardin Fraser's Washington portrait.
Five honorees appeared each year in circulation and collector products. The program concluded in 2025 and does not include the separate 2026 Semiquincentennial quarters.
Core specifications
- Issue period
- 2022–2025
- Catalog mints
- 3
- Reported catalog mintage
- 8,045,992,885
- Composition
- 91.67% Copper - 8.33% Nickel
- Diameter
- 24.3 mm
- Weight
- 5.67 g
A compact program with a wide field of achievement
The honorees represent contributions in suffrage, civil rights, science, arts, government, aviation, and other fields, with a new reverse for each woman.
Fraser's Washington portrait—originally prepared for the 1932 competition—became the common obverse, linking the modern program to an earlier design history.
Obverse, reverse, and the details that identify the type
Confirm the major design, date, and mint mark before studying smaller die differences.
The main portrait and date
Laura Gardin Fraser's right-facing Washington portrait carries LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, and the date and mint mark.
Denomination, subject, and mint mark
Each honoree receives an independent composition rather than a fixed template, so inscriptions and portrait treatment vary widely.
Where the cataloged coins were made
Totals are calculated from reported issue records in this catalog; unknown figures are not counted as zero.
- P — Philadelphia: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; 4,066,200,000. P identifies Philadelphia; confirm its expected position and issue format against the series design guide.
- D — Denver: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; 3,958,000,000. Confirm the D mint mark together with its expected year, position, and issue format.
- S — San Francisco: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; 21,792,885. Confirm the S mint mark together with its expected year, position, and issue format.
Representative issues that explain the series
A twenty-design circulation set is clear and finite; P/D pairs and S-mint clad or silver proofs create larger product sets.
- 2022 P - Maya Angelou — 237,600,000. Open the issue page and read this record together with its type, mint, finish, and grade context.
- 2022 D - Sally Ride — 278,000,000. Open the issue page and read this record together with its type, mint, finish, and grade context.
- 2024 P - Patsy Takemoto Mink — 210,200,000. Open the issue page and read this record together with its type, mint, finish, and grade context.
- 2025 P - Ida B. Wells — 166,200,000. Open the issue page and read this record together with its type, mint, finish, and grade context.
Behind the Coin
Twenty women, twenty reasons these quarters exist
The American Women Quarters are not twenty interchangeable portraits. Each reverse connects a person, a field of achievement, a design problem, and a public decision about whose work belongs in the nation’s everyday memory.
Why the program exists
Public Law 116-330 authorized reverse designs emblematic of prominent American women, up to five per year from 2022 through 2025. It called for breadth across fields and for ethnic, racial, and geographic diversity; every honoree had to be deceased.
How honorees and designs were selected
A 2021 public portal received more than 11,000 recommendations. The Mint worked with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative and the National Women’s History Museum, consulted the Congressional Bipartisan Women’s Caucus and subject experts, and sent final recommendations to the Treasury Secretary. Candidate designs were reviewed by the Commission of Fine Arts and Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee before final selection.
What the program represents
Together the coins treat circulation as a form of public history. They place achievement in science, arts, government, civil rights, Native sovereignty, journalism, education, athletics, and disability justice into millions of ordinary exchanges—not as a complete history, but as twenty deliberate entries into it.
Program timeline · 2020–2025
From authorization to twenty designs in circulation
- Congress passes the redesign act
The legislation establishes the four-year women’s quarter program and its selection requirements.
- Public recommendations and design work
More than 11,000 recommendations enter the public portal while the first-year designs move through review.
- Maya Angelou opens the series
The first five reverses enter circulation with Fraser’s Washington portrait on the common obverse.
- Rights, culture, flight, and performance
The second year expands the program through journalism, human rights, Hawaiian knowledge, aviation, and ballet.
- Law, education, medicine, music, and Native advocacy
Five new designs place reform work and artistic achievement into distinct visual languages.
- The final five complete the program
Journalism, youth leadership, astronomy, disability justice, and sport close the twenty-design sequence.
Four year chapters
Every reverse begins with a different historical question
Cards state the current research depth honestly. Maya Angelou is the completed deep-story vertical slice; the other honorees continue to their existing mint-issue records until each dedicated prompt is completed.
Voice, exploration, sovereignty, suffrage, and representation
Five honorees · twenty-five mint/finish records
2022 · 01Maya Angelou
1928–2014
Writer, poet, performer, teacher, and civil-rights activist
She transformed lived experience into literature and public speech centered on dignity, survival, voice, and hope.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueDr. Sally Ride
Physicist, astronaut, educator, and first American woman in space
Her career connected scientific achievement with a lasting commitment to science education.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueWilma Mankiller
First woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation
Her leadership joined tribal sovereignty, community development, and public service.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueNina Otero-Warren
New Mexico suffrage leader, educator, and public official
She worked across language and cultural boundaries for voting rights and public education.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueAnna May Wong
Pioneering Chinese American film and stage actor
Her international career challenged the restrictions and stereotypes imposed on Asian American performers.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueFlight, cultural knowledge, human rights, journalism, and dance
Five honorees · twenty-five mint/finish records
Bessie Coleman
Pilot, advocate, and aviation pioneer
She overcame barriers in American aviation training and expanded who could imagine a life in flight.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueEdith Kanakaʻole
Indigenous Hawaiian composer, chanter, dancer, and teacher
Her teaching and moʻolelo sustained relationships among language, hula, land, and Native Hawaiian knowledge.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueEleanor Roosevelt
First lady, author, reformer, and human-rights leader
Her public work helped move human rights from aspiration toward an international framework.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueJovita Idár
Mexican American journalist, activist, teacher, and suffragist
She used journalism, organizing, and education to defend civil rights and Mexican American communities.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueMaria Tallchief
Osage dancer and America’s first prima ballerina
Her artistry transformed American ballet while her Osage identity remained integral to her story.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueCivil-rights law, education, medicine, music, and Native advocacy
Five honorees · twenty-five mint/finish records
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray
Poet, writer, activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priest
Murray’s legal reasoning and organizing linked struggles against racial and sex discrimination.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issuePatsy Takemoto Mink
Congresswoman and advocate for educational equality
Her legislative work widened access to education and challenged racial and gender exclusion.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueDr. Mary Edwards Walker
Civil War surgeon and women’s-rights and dress-reform advocate
Her medical service and reform work challenged boundaries placed on women’s professions and public lives.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueCelia Cruz
Cuban American singer and international cultural icon
Her voice and stage presence carried Afro-Cuban musical traditions to audiences around the world.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueZitkala-Ša
Yankton Dakota writer, composer, educator, and political activist
Her writing and advocacy confronted assimilation and defended Native citizenship and cultural continuity.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueInvestigative truth, youth leadership, astronomy, disability justice, and sport
Five honorees · twenty-five mint/finish records
Ida B. Wells
Investigative journalist, suffragist, and civil-rights activist
Her documented campaign against lynching made evidence and journalism instruments of civil-rights action.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueJuliette Gordon Low
Founder of Girl Scouts of the United States of America
She built an organization centered on girls’ leadership, practical skills, service, and outdoor life.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueDr. Vera Rubin
Astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation
Her observations supplied foundational evidence for the unseen mass now described as dark matter.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueStacey Park Milbern
Disability-justice activist and movement builder
Her organizing emphasized interdependence, access, race, gender, disability, and collective care.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueAlthea Gibson
Trailblazing tennis champion and multi-sport athlete
Her victories challenged the color barrier at the highest levels of international tennis.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issue
Common design language
One shared obverse, an older design finally used
Every coin uses Laura Gardin Fraser’s right-facing portrait of George Washington. Fraser composed and sculpted it for the 1932 Washington bicentennial quarter competition; it was recommended at the time, but Treasury selected John Flanagan’s design. The 2022–2025 program gave Fraser’s portrait a new public life and placed the date and mint mark on the obverse.
Collecting the complete program
The clearest starting point is one example of each of the twenty reverses. A larger set can add Philadelphia and Denver circulation strikes, then San Francisco uncirculated, clad proof, and silver-proof formats only where the catalog confirms them. Keep design completeness separate from mint-and-finish completeness.
Explore the complete 100-record issue matrixSources and editorial method
Official accounts stay separate from WorldCoinBook interpretation
Law and Mint records establish program scope, selection, and official design meaning. WorldCoinBook adds visual or historical interpretation only when visibly labeled. Card summaries do not substitute for each honoree’s dedicated research.
Last verified: 2026-08-02- Authorizing lawPublic Law 116-330 — Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020U.S. Government Publishing Office
- Official program recordAmerican Women Quarters ProgramUnited States Mint
- Official selection-process accountAmerican Women Quarters Program Receives 11,000 Public RecommendationsUnited States Mint
- Official technical recordQuarter: Designs, Programs, and SpecificationsUnited States Mint
Flight, cultural knowledge, human rights, journalism, and dance
Five honorees · twenty-five mint/finish records
Bessie Coleman
Pilot, advocate, and aviation pioneer
She overcame barriers in American aviation training and expanded who could imagine a life in flight.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueEdith Kanakaʻole
Indigenous Hawaiian composer, chanter, dancer, and teacher
Her teaching and moʻolelo sustained relationships among language, hula, land, and Native Hawaiian knowledge.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueEleanor Roosevelt
First lady, author, reformer, and human-rights leader
Her public work helped move human rights from aspiration toward an international framework.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueJovita Idár
Mexican American journalist, activist, teacher, and suffragist
She used journalism, organizing, and education to defend civil rights and Mexican American communities.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueMaria Tallchief
Osage dancer and America’s first prima ballerina
Her artistry transformed American ballet while her Osage identity remained integral to her story.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueCivil-rights law, education, medicine, music, and Native advocacy
Five honorees · twenty-five mint/finish records
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray
Poet, writer, activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priest
Murray’s legal reasoning and organizing linked struggles against racial and sex discrimination.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issuePatsy Takemoto Mink
Congresswoman and advocate for educational equality
Her legislative work widened access to education and challenged racial and gender exclusion.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueDr. Mary Edwards Walker
Civil War surgeon and women’s-rights and dress-reform advocate
Her medical service and reform work challenged boundaries placed on women’s professions and public lives.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueCelia Cruz
Cuban American singer and international cultural icon
Her voice and stage presence carried Afro-Cuban musical traditions to audiences around the world.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueZitkala-Ša
Yankton Dakota writer, composer, educator, and political activist
Her writing and advocacy confronted assimilation and defended Native citizenship and cultural continuity.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueInvestigative truth, youth leadership, astronomy, disability justice, and sport
Five honorees · twenty-five mint/finish records
Ida B. Wells
Investigative journalist, suffragist, and civil-rights activist
Her documented campaign against lynching made evidence and journalism instruments of civil-rights action.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueJuliette Gordon Low
Founder of Girl Scouts of the United States of America
She built an organization centered on girls’ leadership, practical skills, service, and outdoor life.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueDr. Vera Rubin
Astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation
Her observations supplied foundational evidence for the unseen mass now described as dark matter.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueStacey Park Milbern
Disability-justice activist and movement builder
Her organizing emphasized interdependence, access, race, gender, disability, and collective care.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issueAlthea Gibson
Trailblazing tennis champion and multi-sport athlete
Her victories challenged the color barrier at the highest levels of international tennis.
5 mint/finish recordsOpen a catalog issue