The image of Maya Angelou, an American poet, is featured in quarters that started shipping Monday, according to the United States Mint, ABC News reported.
The quarters bearing her image are the first in the Mint’s American Women Quarters Program.
Also an author and a Civil Rights activist, Angelou became famous when her work “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was published in 1969.
Angelou received a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2010. She died in 2014 at the age of 86.
Angelou is featured with her arms outspread in the quarters. A bird in flight and a rising sun are seen behind her – which was derived from her poetry.
Women and their notable contribution to the country’s history will be honored in 20 quarters through the mint’s program for more than four years.
Included in the women who will be featured this year are Sally Ride, a physicist and the first woman astronaut; as well as Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Nation’s first female principal chief.
Nina Otero-Warren, New Mexico’s suffrage movement leader and Santa Fe public schools’ first female principal; and Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Chinese American film celebrity, will also be recognized through the quarters this year.
The legislation pushing for the quarters to honor women was sponsored in the Senate by Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Mastro. She commended the Mint for choosing Angelou to be honored in the first coin.
“This coin will ensure generations of Americans learn about Maya Angelou’s books and poetry that spoke to the lived experience of Black women,” she said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the country’s first female Treasury secretary, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, said: “Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country …. I’m very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America’s most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou.”
