The new U.S. quarter featuring the legendary poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has gone into circulation, the U.S. Mint said Monday. Angelou, who died in 2014 at 86, is the first Black woman to ever appear on the coin. Hers is the first in the four-year American Women Quarters Program, which will also soon feature coins with the likenesses of Sally Ride and Anna May Wong emblazoned on them. “Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country—what we value, and how we’ve progressed as a society,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement. “I’m very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America’s most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou.” The Angelou quarter shows the I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings writer with her arms uplifted on the “tails” side, with a bird and the rising sun stamped behind her—symbols “inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived,” according to the Mint. The “heads” side features a portrait of George Washington. The agency added in a press release that it had “begun shipping” the first Angelou coins to banks.
