The African American poet Maya Angelou on the quarter dollar

(ANSA) - WASHINGTON, 11 JAN - The effigy of the African-American poet and activist Maya Angelou appears on a new quarter dollar coin, the famous 25 American cents, the most widely used currency in the United States. These are not collector's items but pieces that the US Mint will produce in large quantities for daily use. It is the result of a vote in Congress at the end of 2020, on the proposal of the Californian deputy dem Barbara Lee, to celebrate illustrious American women of different origins.

    This will be followed by astronaut and physicist Sally Ridem Wilma Mankiller, the first Native American to lead the Cherokee nation, the politician and militant of Hispanic origin Nina Otero-Warrren, and actress Anna May Wong, the first Hollywood star of Asian descent.

    The quarter had had rare alternative versions since 1932: a series of 50 pieces representing the same number of US states, at the beginning of the 2000s, and national parks and sites, from 2010 to 2021. The coin will continue to have on one side the portrait of the first American president, George Washington.

(HANDLE).