Every year the U.S. Mint produces about 13 billion coins! That’s a lot, right? It recently announced that there will be a new picture on the quarter! The first woman on the quarter is…Maya Angelou! Angelou is a poet who read “On the Pulse of the Morning” when President Bill Clinton was being inaugurated. She is also known for many of her books like: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and “And Still I Rise.” She will be the first African American printed on a coin. Each year for the next five years, they’ll print a new trailblazer. The future ladies will be: Sally Ride (first female astronaut), Anna May-Wong (an actress), Nina Otero-Warren (who fought for women’s rights), and Wilma Mankiller (the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation).

Talking about coins, do you know how they’re made? First, the coins are cut out of a long strip of copper, nickel, or zinc and these are called “blanks.” The extra scraps get sent back and made into another long strip, while the clean and shiny blank coins go to get washed and dried. This heats them up and softens them for the next step. Then, the coins go to the “riddler” to be sorted into “good blanks” and the ones that need to remade into a perfect blank. Any blanks with the wrong shape or size are sent back to the beginning. If they pass the riddlers, the coins then get their rim ridges at the upsetting mill so the blind can feel the difference between coins. Finally, after all of that chaos, the coins get made into us coins by being stamped, or striked, with their design. One thing is for sure, the strikers for quarters will have to change! They will need to print out the faces of the lady that they are printing for that year. If they pass the last inspection, they get bagged and shipped to banks all across the country.

So, next time you get a quarter, make sure to check the back of it to see if one of the trailblazers are on it! Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky Americans who actually gets one! And when you look at it, hopefully