Numismatic News reported that the U.S. Mint, a division of the Treasury Dept., will begin striking and putting into circulation quarters that will portray prominent American women. A total of 20 women will be individually depicted on quarters put into circulation through the year 2025.
A law requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue quarter dollars in commemoration of the Nineteenth Amendment passed the House and Senate last year. The law mandates the issuance of quarter dollars emblematic of up to five prominent American women each year.
Ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.
The new coin legislation authorizes three organizations to suggest who will be included in the new quarter series. They are the Smithsonian Institution American Women’s History Initiative, National Women’s History Museum and Bipartisan Women’s Caucus.
Suggestions will be submitted to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and will be published in the Federal Register to allow the public to comment on who merits the honor. Yellen will make the final decision on which 20 women will appear on the coins.
