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U.S. Mint announces 5 women on new quarters for 2025. Here’s who will be on the coins.
The U.S. Mint has revealed the five historical female figures who will appear on the reverse sides of quarters for 2025, the last year it will issue American Women Quarters Program coins featuring iconic American women.
The trailblazing women to be featured on the tail side of coins include Ida B. Wells, Juliette Gordon Low, Dr. Vera Rubin, Stacey Park Milbern and Althea Gibson, the U.S. Mint, part of the U.S. Treasury, said Wednesday.
“I am honored to announce the 2025 designs for the fourth and final year of the historic American Women’s Quarters Program,” U.S. Mint Director Ventris C. Gibson said in a statement. “This program has recognized the remarkable legacies of these extraordinary she-roes. These beautiful American Women quarters will be in circulation for decades to come and continue to educate the American people on our incredible honorees.”
2025 will mark the fourth and final year of the program, which will have issued 20 new quarters featuring the images of trailblazing figures from diverse ethnic, racial and geographic backgrounds. The head side of the coins feature Founding Father George Washington.
Who are the women on the 2025 coins?
- Ida B. Wells was a prominent African-American investigative journalist, suffragist and civil rights activist. She died in 1931.
- Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of the United States of America, created the organization to help girls unlock their full potential and build confidence.
- Dr. Vera Rubin, the astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates.
- Stacey Park Milbern, an activist for people with disabilities.
- Althea Gibson, a professional tennis player and golfer who was the first Black player to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
What was the selection process?
The Treasury partnered with the Smithsonian Institution’s American Women’s History Initiative, the National Women’s History Museum and the Congressional Bipartisan Women’s Caucus to select its honorees. It also solicited the public’s input into whom it should feature on the coins.
Coins featuring previous years’ honorees are for sale on the U.S. Mint’s website, while the new coins will begin circulating in 2025.
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A teacher and student killed in a shooting earlier this week at a school in Madison, Wisconsin, were identified Wednesday by authorities.
The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a news release provided to CBS News that 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara were fatally shot Monday morning at Abundant Life Christian School.
Preliminary examinations determined the two died of “homicidal firearm related trauma.” Both were pronounced dead at the scene, the medical examiner said.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
The medical examiner also confirmed that a preliminary autopsy found that the suspected shooter, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow — a student at the same school — was pronounced dead at a local hospital Monday of “firearm related trauma.” Madison Chief of Police Shon F. Barnes had previously told reporters that Rupnow was pronounced dead while being transported to a hospital.
Police had also previously stated that she was believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting at the private Christian K-12 school was reported just before 11 a.m. Monday. In addition to the two people killed and the shooter, six others were wounded.
Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
A handgun was recovered after the shooting, Barnes said, but it was unclear where the gun came from or how many shots were fired. A law enforcement source said the weapon used in the shooting appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
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