If you’ve been online at all in the past couple of years, you’ve seen the debates around changing up United States currency so it features somebody other than, well, an old white guy. Back in October, the U.S. Mint announced designs for its American Women Quarters Program. Now, the Mint has finally begun shipping out coins, starting with a quarter featuring Maya Angelou that debuted Monday. The legendary poet is now the first Black woman to appear on the quarter.
From 2022 to 2025, the U.S. Mint will print five quarters per year featuring a notable American woman. The designs are meant to somehow embody each of the individual woman’s accomplishments or legacy. Angelou’s quarter shows her with her arms uplifted, and behind her you can see a rising sun and flying bird. The Mint said the design was inspired by her poems and “symbolic of the way she lived.”
