By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
From 2022 by means of 2025, the quarter greenback coin–which has not had a constant reverse design year-to-year since 1998–is the canvas used to have fun many achieved ladies which have made a mark all through American historical past. Congress approved the American Girls Quarters Program with Public Law 116-330, which mandated designs “emblematic of the accomplishments and contributions of 1 outstanding girl of the USA, and should embody contributions to the USA in a large spectrum of accomplishments and subject, together with however not restricted to suffrage, civil rights, abolition, authorities, humanities, science, house, and humanities, and will honor ladies from ethnically, racially, and geographically various backgrounds.”
From a numismatic standpoint, this system has confirmed to be a spectacular success. The honorees mirror a variety of accomplishments, from film stars to scientists, from civil rights leaders to ladies who had been historic firsts in vital fields. Plenty of the designs have been experimental and visionary.
The United States Mint honored 5 distinguished ladies in 2022: Maya Angelou, Sally Journey, Wilma Mankiller, Nina Otero-Warren, and Anna Could Wong.
Wilma Mankiller – Legacy of Management
Wilma Mankiller was born to Cherokee dad and mom on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. A extreme drought introduced her household to California in 1956, the place her dad and mom struggled financially, shifting from city to city hoping to seek out extra steady alternatives.
As soon as she graduated highschool in June 1963, Mankiller married Hector Hugo Olaya, a rich Ecuadorian school pupil, and began a household. As a younger mom, she took an curiosity in activism and have become concerned within the anti-war motion and selling the civil rights of ladies and ethnic minorities.
After divorcing Olaya in 1974, Mankiller remained in California, engaged on Indian points for 2 years earlier than returning to Oklahoma in 1976. There, she continued her training, discovered work within the tribal places of work, and suffered a collection of well being setbacks. By this adversity, Mankiller discovered course in embracing what she known as in a 1993 NPR interview, “a Cherokee way of living.”
Mankiller turned extra concerned in tribal group improvement tasks, elevating thousands and thousands of {dollars} of grants to enhance the lives of her group. In 1983, she campaigned for and was elected Deputy Chief, defeating Perry Wheeler, a funeral director. In that place, she confronted stiff opposition from the male members of the tribal council, who had been dismissive of Mankiller due to her intercourse. Regardless of this, Mankiller pushed for enhancements on a number of urgent points and the tribe re-elected her in 1985.
That 12 months, Chief Ross Swimmer was appointed Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mankiller succeeded Swimmer as the primary feminine principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. She held the place for two-and-a-half phrases and determined to not search re-election in 1995 because of well being points. Mankiller’s tenure as Principal Chief proved profitable, and plenty of initiatives she launched and/or oversaw considerably benefited the Cherokee Nation.
In her later years, she remained lively in social causes. Mankiller was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993, and in 1998, President Invoice Clinton bestowed upon her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Wilma Mankiller died in 2010 at age 64.
The Wilma Mankiller Quarter
Wilma Mankiller appeared on the third American Girls Quarter issued in 2022, launched on June 6. The reverse of Mankiller’s quarter was designed by United States Mint Creative Infusion Program (AIP) artist Benjamin Sowards and sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill. Mankiller seems at left, dealing with proper, together with the seven-pointed star of the Cherokee Nation and her title in each English and Cherokee. That is the second use of Cherokee language on a U.S. coin, the primary being the 2017 Native American Greenback honoring Sequoyah, the creator of the Cherokee syllabary (Cherokee additionally seems on the 2008 Code Talkers Cherokee Nation Congressional Gold Medal).
Enterprise strikes had been struck on the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints. Solely cash struck at Philadelphia and Denver had been produced for industrial launch; San Francisco enterprise strikes had been produced for the numismatic market and bought to collectors by means of the Mint’s web site at a premium over face worth.
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Market Knowledge and Noteworthy Specimens
Latest 2022-P Wilma Mankiller American Girls Quarter gross sales on eBay (November 2024) point out that collectors are paying round $5 for uncooked examples. There may be a lot hypothesis targeted on error cash, and costs can leap radically for uncertified circulated items; favorites embody the “die cud in hair” and “Drooling Washington”. On the time of this replace, no licensed specimens had been bought on eBay within the final three months.
High Inhabitants: PCGS MS67 (98, 11/2024), NGC MS69 (19, 11/2024), and CACG N/A (0:0 stickered:graded, 11/2024).
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Design
Obverse:
The American Girls Quarters function an obverse design of Founding Father George Washington that sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser designed in 1931. Washington’s head faces to the suitable. The phrase LIBERTY wraps clockwise across the high of the design, with the underside of the letters BER barely obstructed by the highest of Washington’s head. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST seems in skinny tall letters to the left. The date and mintmark seem on the decrease proper facet of the design, tucked below Washington’s chin. Gardin Fraser’s initials LGF are discovered within the truncation of Washington’s neck.
Reverse:
Wilma Mankiller, depicted from the waist up, faces to the suitable. Her hair is flowing because the wind is at her again. Mankiller is wrapped in a tribal scarf and he or she is sporting a protracted beaded necklace. Northern Oklahoma Cherokee tribal land is seen within the distance. Within the foreground is the seven-pointed star of the Cherokee Nation. Superimposed over Mankiller, in three descending traces, are the inscriptions WILMA MANKILLER / PRINCIPAL CHIEF / ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ. ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ transliterates to Tsa-la-gi-hi A-ye-li (“Cherokee Nation”). The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA curves clockwise across the high of the rim, whereas the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM and the denomination QUARTER DOLLAR curve counterclockwise across the backside rim. Designer Benjamin Sowards’ initials BS are discovered on the left facet on the underside of Mankiller’s scarf, and sculptor Phebe Hemphill’s initials PH are discovered on the suitable facet close to the underside of the coin, among the many lengthy, flowing fringe.
Edge:
Like all cash within the American Girls Quarters Program, the sting of the 2022 Wilma Mankiller Quarter is reeded.
Designers
Laura Gardin Fraser was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1889. After receiving an training on the Columbia College and later on the Artwork College students League of New York, the place she studied below her future husband James Earle Fraser. Laura Gardin Fraser died in 1966. In 2022, the portrait of George Washington that she submitted for the Washington Quarter changed John Flanagan’s long-running portrait (submitted in the identical competitors) at some point of the American Girls Quarters Program.
Creative Infusion Program (AIP) artist Benjamin Sowards studied at Brigham Younger College and Laguna Faculty of Artwork and Design. He’s recognized for his portraiture and totally painted ebook illustrations – together with the Leven Thumps collection of younger grownup fantasy novels. He has taught as Director of the Illustration Program at Southern Utah College since 2001.
Designer Phebe Hemphill joined the Mint in 2006, and since that point has grow to be one of many nation’s most prolific coin designers (View Designer’s Profile).
2022-P Wilma Mankiller American Girls Quarter Coin Specs
| Nation: | United States of America |
| 12 months of Concern: | 2022 |
| Denomination: | Quarter Greenback (25 Cents USD) |
| Mintmark: | P (Philadelphia) |
| Mintage: | 310,000,000 |
| Alloy: | Outer layers of .750 copper, .250 nickel bonded to a pure copper core |
| Weight: | 5.67 g |
| Diameter: | 24.30 mm |
| Edge: | Reeded |
| OBV Designer: | Laura Gardin Fraser |
| REV Designer: | Benjamin Sowards | Phebe Hemphill |
| High quality: | Enterprise Strike |
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