Washington DC: Poet and activist Maya Angelou has become the first Black woman to appear on the US quarter, in a new version of the coin unveiled by the US Mint.
Historically, the quarter has the first American President George Washington on one side and an eagle on the other side.
In a statement by the US Mint, this is the first quarter to be released in the American Quarters Programme.
The coin is the first in the line of new quarters that will be released by the US treasury over the next 4 years. The plan is to call attention to the influential women in the United States.
The US Mint “has begun shipping the first coins” with Angelou’s likeness on the American quarter, a 25-cent piece, according to a press release from the agency.
Angelou, an American author, poet and Civil Rights activist, rose to prominence with the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969.
Angelou, who died in 2014 at the age of 86, was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 by President Barack Obama.