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Famous writer gets a coin - 31st January 2022
Maya Angelou has become the first Black woman on a US quarter dollar. The famous American writer died in 2014 at the age of 89. She had produced over 30 successful books, which focused on her experience of life and racism.
Angelou's first success was in 1969. The book was about her childhood in the racist American South. She read one of her poems when Bill Clinton was made US president in 1993. Many universities have given her honorary degrees. President Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest US non-military award.
On the new 25 cent coin, Angelou stands with her arms stretching out. The background includes themes from her writing: a flying bird and the rising sun.
More quarters are planned for important American women – Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller and Anna May Wong. Ride was the first US woman astronaut. Mankiller was the first Cherokee woman leader. May was Hollywood's first Chinese American film star.
There aren't many women on US currency. But this is changing. Janet Yellen's the first woman US Treasury Secretary. She says coins give us "the chance to say something about our country – what we value".
There are also plans to have women on banknotes. Anti-slavery campaigner Harriet Tubman will be on the 20 dollar bill.
