#WomenOnQuarters: Create A New Set of Quarters Featuring Great American Women!

  • by: Kelly Irwin
  • recipient: The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, United States Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Mint

In 1999, the United States Mint implemented its 50 State Quarters Program, a 10-year initiative that honored each state. It was a fun and educational program, and people enjoyed collecting the coins. I would like the U.S. Mint to issue a new set of 50 quarters featuring prominent American women from each state. The women featured on the coins could include Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Clara Barton, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc. There are numerous wonderful possibilities. I suggest that we pick a great woman from each of the 50 states.

Here are just a few possibilities for each state (this list is not meant to be exhaustive or prescriptive; it's merely a jumping-off point for discussion):

  • Alabama: Helen Keller, Zora Neale Hurston, Harper Lee, Rosa Parks
  • Alaska: Lydia Black, Margaret Murie, Dorothy Page
  • Arizona: Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, Annie Dodge Wauneka
  • Arkansas: Daisy L. Gatson Bates, Hattie Caraway, Ida Brooks, Jennie Eakin Delony
  • California: Pauline Kael, Mary Ellen Pleasant, Sally Ride, Adela Rogers St. Johns
  • Colorado: Chipeta, Catharine Lee Bates, Justina Ford, Florence Sabin
  • Connecticut: Prudence Crandall, Emeline Roberts Jones, Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Delaware: Emily Bissell, Annie Jump Cannon, Mary Ann Shadd Cary
  • Florida: Mary McLeod Bethune, Jacqueline Cochran, Althea Gibson
  • Georgia: Juliette Gordon Low, Moina Michael, Mary Musgrove, Flannery O'Connor
  • Hawaii: Queen Lili'uokalani, Isabella Kauakea Yau Yung Aiona Abbot, Patsy Mink
  • Idaho: Louise Siuwheem, Jo Monaghan, Jane Timothy Silcott, Polly Bemis, May Arkwright Hutton, Emma Russell Yearian, Minnie Howard, Margaret Cobb Ailshie, Nell Shipman, Eliza Hart Spalding, Kitty Wilkins
  • Illinois: Jane Addams, Emma Smith DeVoe, Janet Rowley
  • Indiana: Mariah Mendenhall, Elinor Ostrom, Madam C.J. Walker
  • Iowa: Amelia Bloomer, Charlotte Hughes Bruner, Gwendolyn Wilson Fowler, Arabella Mansfield, Gertrude Durden Rush, Jessie Field Shambaugh, Annie Wittenmyer
  • Kansas: Amelia Earhart, Ruth Patrick
  • Kentucky: Anna Mac Clarke, Laura Clay, Julia Britton Hooks, Delia Webster
  • Louisiana: Grace King, Kate Chopin, Mahalia Jackson, Pearl Rivers, Sarah Morgan Dawson
  • Maine: Dorothea Dix, Sarah Orne Jewett, Gail Laughlin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Margaret Chase Smith
  • Maryland: Clara Barton, Rachel Carson, Billlie Holiday, Henrietta Lacks
  • Massachusetts: Abigail Adams, Lydia Maria Child, Emily Dickinson, Lilla Cabot Perry, Elizabeth Poole
  • Minnesota: Harriet Bishop, Frances Densmore, Coya Knutson, Jeannette Piccard
  • Mississippi: Fannie Lou Hamer, Elizabeth Lee Hazen
  • Missouri: Maya Angelou, Martha Gellhorn, Sara Teasdale
  • Montana: Bertha Grimm Gonder, Jeannette Rankin, Minnie Two Shoes, Esther Vance, Mildred Walker
  • Nebraska: Grace Abbott, Susan La Flesche Picotte
  • Nevada: Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins
  • New Hampshire: Sarah Josepha Hale, Christa McAuliffe
  • New Jersey: Beatrice Hicks, Dorothea Lange, Clara Maass, Alice Paul, Sarah Vaughn
  • New Mexico: Dona Dolores Eizabeth Chavez de Armijo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Adelina Otero-Warren
  • New York: Shirley Chisholm, Sybil Ludington, Frances Perkins, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Edith Wharton
  • North Carolina: Penelope Barker, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Lilliam Exum Clement, Sarah Decrow, Ann Durant, Mary Jane Patterson, Alice Person, Gertrude Weil, Ella Mae Wiggins, Bayard Wootten, Mary Wyche
  • North Dakota: Elizabeth Bodine, Laura Eisenhuth, Brynhild Haugland
  • Ohio: Elsie Austin, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Olympia Brown, Dorothy Dandridge, Annie Oakley, Judith Resnick, Lucy Hobbs Taylor
  • Oklahoma: Jeane Kirkpatrick, Wilma Mankiller, Alice Mary Robertson, Maria Tallchief
  • Oregon: Florence Ellinwood Allen, Abigail Duniway
  • Pennsylvania: Nellie Bly, Margaret Mead, Betsy Ross, Ida Tarbell
  • Rhode Island: Julia Ward Howe, Ida Lewis
  • South Carolina: Anna DeCosta Banks, Charlotta Spears Bass, Septima Clark, Matilda Arabelle Evans Wil Lou Gray, Mary Simms Oliphant, Hilla Sheriff
  • South Dakota: Gertrude Bonnin, Maria Pearson, Gladys Pyle, Mary Shields Pyle
  • Tennessee: Mary Engle Pennington, Wilma Rudolph
  • Texas: Sarah Horton Cockrell, Bessie Coleman, Juanita Shanks Craft, Miriam Ferguson, Oveta Culp Hobby, Barbara Jordan, Katherine Stinson, Babe Didrickson Zaharias
  • Utah: Reva Beck Bosone, Martha Hughes Cannon, Phoebe Couzins, Esther Peterson, Emily Sophia Tanner Richards, Ellis Reynolds Shipp, Zina Young
  • Vermont: Edna Beard, Sylvia Bliss, Clarina Howard Nichols, Nettie Stevens
  • Virginia: Willa Cather, Ella Fitzgerald
  • Washington: Esther Ross
  • West Virginia: Pearl Buck, Anna Johnson Gates
  • Wisconsin: Carrie Chapman Catt, Dickey Chapelle, Janet Jennings, Emma Toft, Laura Ross Wolcott, Theodora Youmans
  • Wyoming: Esther Hobart Morris, Nellie Tayloe Ross


I fully support the efforts to put a woman on our paper currency. But only one woman will receive that honor. If we also implement this program in addition to putting a woman on the $10 bill, we will be able to honor so many more women!

The new quarter design program would accomplish several things. It would promote the accomplishments of women who are very deserving of this honor. It would provide educational opportunities for parents who can explain these women's achievements to their children, and show girls that women can accomplish whatever they put their minds to. It could also spark a new surge in coin collecting, especially among girls.

If you like this idea, please sign and show your support!

Update #17 years ago
Hello Everyone,

Thank you so much for supporting my petition! I want to share that my representative in the U.S. House, Patrick Meehan, wrote a letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Jacob Lew, in support of my petition! These things can take time, so please keep sharing the petition so that we can get as many supporters as possible!

Sincerely,
Kelly
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