2022 American Women Quarters, P and D Mints, Set of 10

Get All the 2022 American Women Quarters in One Order

The 10 quarters in this set were issued in 2022, the first year of the American Women Quarters Program.  This is the first series of US coins to honor the achievements of women.  The reverse designs feature Maya Angelo, Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller, and Nina Otero.  These coins were minted at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints.

About the American Women Quarters Program

The American Women Quarters Program is a multi-year tribute to women from diverse backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and parts of the US.  They were chosen for their contributions to the abolition of slavery, civil rights activism, roles in government, as well as expertise in science, the arts, humanities and much more.
From 2022 through 2025, five new coins were released each year.  Each coin features a distinctive reverse design honoring an American woman, along with her name, “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” and “QUARTER DOLLAR.”   The obverse side showcases a new design of George Washington. 

Here’s some information about the women commemorated on these quarters:

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) once said “my mission in life is not to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” And she did.
By her mid-twenties, Angelou was performing in touring musicals and plays and had released her first music album, Miss Calypso.  She spent much of her 30s abroad, learning the languages of the countries she visited, teaching, and writing.
In 1969, Angelou made literary history.  The initial installment of her memoirs, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, became the first best-selling nonfiction work by an African American woman.  From there, Angelou went on to author numerous inspirational books, poems, and essays.  She never attended college but was awarded more than 50 honorary doctoral degrees and taught as a professor at Wake Forest University for 25 years.  In 2010 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Poet, actor, author, teacher, and activist, Angelou became an influential voice of the 20th century.  She was known for her timeless wisdom and is remembered for her numerous contributions to American culture.  Despite her many talents and accomplishments, Maya Angelou wished to be remembered simply as a “good human being.”

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
She earned a PhD in physics from Stanford University in 1978.  The same year, the university ran an ad in the student newspaper looking for people to join the space program.  Ride was among the 8,000 people who applied.
Accepted to NASA in 1978, Ride started her career as the ground-based capsule communicator for the space shuttle as well as helping build the ship's robotic arm. Once it was announced that she would go into space aboard the Challenger mission STS-7, she received instant fame as America's first female astronaut to go to space.  Despite this major milestone, Ride faced questions at press conferences that included "Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?" and "Do you weep when things go wrong on the job?"  But Ride insisted she only saw herself as an astronaut.
On June 18, 1983, at 7:33 am, the STS-7 mission launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  In addition to Ride becoming the first American woman in space, she was also the youngest American in space at age 32.  The flight was also notable in that it was the largest crew in a single spacecraft up to that time (five).  During that mission, the crew deployed two communications satellites and staged pharmaceutical experiments.  Ride was the first woman to use the robotic arm in space and employed it to grab a satellite.
Ride made a second trip to space in 1984, again on the Challenger for STS-41-G.  That mission was the first to carry seven people and the first to carry two American women - Ride and Kathryn Sullivan.  Ride later underwent eight months of training for her third trip to space, but the Challenger disaster grounded all shuttles.  In her two missions, Ride spent over 343 hours in space.
Ride went on to take part in the investigations of the Challenger and Columbia disasters, making her the only person to participate in both.  She also founded NASA's Office of Exploration.  After her retirement from NASA in 1987, she became a professor of physics at the University of California and director of the California Space Institute.  Ride also devoted much of her time to encouraging children, especially young girls, to pursue the sciences, founding her own nonprofit organization dedicated to the cause.

Wilma Mankiller (1945-2010) was born on the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma, but her family moved to San Francisco to improve their finances and opportunities.  As an adult, Wilma worked to improve the life of Native Americans living in California and became the director of the Native American Youth Center in Oakland. 
In the late 1970s, Wilma returned to Oklahoma, where she established the Community Development Department for the Cherokees to improve housing and access to water.  In 1985, Mankiller was elected the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, a position she held for 10 years.  She was the first woman to be elected chief of any Native American tribe.  In this role, she worked tirelessly to improve education, housing, and healthcare for her people. 
In 1993, Mankiller was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.  Five years later President Bill Clinton presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Adelina “Nina” Otero was born in New Mexico in 1881 to Spanish parents.  In 1907, she married Rawson Warren, a US Cavalry officer.  Though their marriage didn’t last, she continued to use Otero-Warren as her last name.  In 1914, Nina moved to Santa Fe, where she became active in promoting the ratification of the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.  She advocated for having informational materials about suffrage written in Spanish, as well as English, for the many Hispanic women to become informed on the issue.
In addition to her involvement in political issues, Otero-Warren was concerned with the quality of education in New Mexico’s schools.  In 1917, she was appointed superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe, the first female to hold that position.  During her 12 years as superintendent, she supported adult education, more qualified teachers, and improving school buildings.  Nina was also a strong advocate for preserving Hispanic culture within the schools.
In 1922, Otero-Warren made history in another field.  She was nominated by the Republican Party to run for the US Senate.  She lost the election, but continued to work with the government through literacy programs with the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps.  Otero-Warren spent her life being a voice to those who weren’t being heard and bettering their circumstances by her efforts.