The United States Mint has released the final designs of the 2024 American Women Quarter Program Quarters. The five final designs came from dozens of designs reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) back in March. The Mint released the line art for each quarter on July 20th, with images of the actual coins expected until late this year or early in 2024.
Patsy Takemoto Mink was the first woman of color and the first Asian-American to serve in Congress. She was a Democratic member of the House of Representatives for 24 years, with her reputation for gender and race equality, health care, and education being tenacious.
Mary Edwards Walker became a surgeon in 1855 and volunteered in the Union Army in the American Civil War. She was eventually commissioned as the first female surgeon in the army. While assisting a Confederate doctor across enemy lines with wounded soldiers, she was arrested as a spy and held as a prisoner of war for four months. After the war, she received the Medal of Honor, becoming the only woman to have earned that medal.
Pauli Murray was the first African American woman to earn a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Yale Law School. She used that degree to advance causes for Civil and Women’s rights. Eventually, she became an Episcopal priest.
Zitkala-Ša, which means “Red Bird”, was also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnie. She was born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She with Quaker missionaries at age eight to learn to read, write and play the violin and piano. She used that education to become a music teacher and would eventually compose the libretto and songs of the opera Sun Dance. Sun Dance is based on Sioux retinals that the federal government at the time had banned.
Celia Cruz was a naturalized Cuban-American singer known as the “Queen of Salsa” due to her operatic range. She left Cuba in 1959 after the Cuban Revolution, despite already being a star in the country. She became the spokesperson for Cuban exiles.
The American Women Quarter Program is a four-year program honoring significant women and their contributions to the United States.