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Not counting postage stamps, this would have to be the first silent film star of any race or sex to appear on a piece of US legal currency, would it not?

https://19thnews.org/2021/05/here-are-t ... -quarters/

Here are the pioneering women who will be on new quarters

Beginning in 2022, women’s faces will appear on quarters for the first time, and the public will help choose who will be minted.

Beginning in 2022, women’s faces will circulate through the nation’s currency on quarters — something long overdue, according to Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who has been working on this legislation since 2017.

“I wanted to make sure that women would be honored, and their images and names be lifted up on our coins. I mean, it’s outrageous that we haven’t,” Lee said. “Hopefully the public really delves into who these women were, because these women have made such a contribution to our country in so many ways.”

Lee began drafting legislation on the coin program with help from Rosa Rios, the Treasury official who oversaw the United States Mint under former President Barack Obama. She introduced her bill, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act, with two Republicans, Reps. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and Deb Fischer of Nebraska. It was signed into law in 2020.

The program will have the United States Mint circulate up to five chosen women on the reverse (tail) side of the quarter-dollar from 2022 to 2025 — allowing for up to 22 women to have their faces on U.S. quarters by the end of 2025. The Mint selected the first two women to be in circulation by 2022: the civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou and astronaut Dr. Sally Ride. Three others were announced in June: Wilma Mankiller, Adelina Otero-Warren and Anna May Wong.

“In circulation means if you go to purchase whatever in the grocery store … the chances are you may get a quarter with Dr. Maya Angelou or Dr. Sally Ride,” Lee said.

It’s not just about the coins, but about what they represent and the power they have to start a dialogue in this nation around women who were trailblazers in their field, Lee said. The last time a woman appeared on U.S. currency was in 2000, when gold $1 Sacagawea coins went into circulation, honoring the Indigenous woman who helped the Lewis and Clark expedition explore the Louisiana Purchase territory.

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Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961)

Wong was the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood and appeared in over 60 movies, as well as starring in roles on television and on the stage. Growing up, she worked in her family’s laundry business while attending Chinese language classes after school. But when the film industry moved from New York City to California, she started visiting movie sets and was cast in her first starring role in “The Toll of the Sea” in 1922. After working in the United States for years, Wong moved abroad because of the discrimination she experienced in the American film industry. Later in her life, she became an activist, raising money and advocating for Chinese refugees during World War II. She was the first Asian American to lead a US television show, “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong.”

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/us-mi ... index.html

From Maya Angelou to Anna May Wong, these pioneering women will appear on US quarters next year
Published 7th October 2021

From left: Maya Angelou, Wilma Mankiller, Sally Ride, Nina Otero-Warren and Anna May Wong are the first five women to appear on quarters produced through the US Mint's "American Women Quarters Program."
Credit: US Mint

Written by Scottie Andrew, CNN

They were suffragettes, leaders, artists and astronauts who transformed the US -- even if you don't know them by name.

Now, they'll be immortalized on American currency.

The US Mint has announced the full list of five pioneering American women who will appear on the first run of the "American Women Quarters Program." Images of the women, who represent a wide array of professions from which women were previously shut out, will appear on the backs of select quarters beginning in 2022. (George Washington's facade will remain on the "heads" side.)

Two of the women, Sally Ride, an astronaut who was the first American woman in space, and the celebrated poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, were selected earlier this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen chose the rest of the honorees with input from the public, according to the US Mint.

The quarter that honors Maya Angelou evokes one of her most famous works, the autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Credit: US Mint

Asian American actress Anna May Wong, Cherokee Nation leader Wilma Mankiller and suffragette and politician Nina Otero-Warren will join Ride and Angelou in being featured on the coins.

"These inspiring coin designs tell the stories of five extraordinary women whose contributions are indelibly etched in American culture," US Mint Acting Director Alison Doone said in a statement.

The US Mint invited the public to submit names of women they view as American icons. The bureau welcomed entries of women known for their work in civil rights, science and the arts, among other areas, with an emphasis on women from "ethnically, racially and geographically diverse backgrounds." The only requirement was that the women who appear on the coins must be deceased.

Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American Hollywood star, appearing in silent films in the 1920s, as well as films such as "Shanghai Express," though racism in the industry severely limited the roles she was able to take.

NASA astronaut Sally Ride's quarter sets her in space. Credit: US Mint

Wilma Mankiller was the first woman to serve as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, according to the National Women's History Museum. During her 10-year tenure in the role, beginning in 1985, the population of the Cherokee Nation more than doubled, and the relationships she bridged between the US government and the Cherokee Nation allowed it to expand its self-governance.

Nina Otero-Warren supported women's suffrage in her native New Mexico and helped include Spanish-speaking women in the suffragist movement. She was Santa Fe's superintendent of public schools for more than a decade, and in the 1920s became the first Hispanic woman to run for Congress (she lost in part because the public discovered she was divorced, according to the National Women's History Museum).

The US Mint program will continue until 2025, honoring five women with five quarters each year.