Quarter honoring former Hawaii representative Patsy Mink is released
The U.S. Mint released a new quarter that honors former Hawaii Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink as part of its 2024 American Women Quarters collection.
Key points:
- On Friday, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono announced the release of the quarter at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
- Mink was the first woman of color to serve in Congress.
Catch up:
- The U.S. Mint is releasing five new quarters featuring women annually from 2022 to 2025 as part of the American Women Quarters Program.
- In July 2023, designs for the third year were announced, including one depicting Mink with a lei around her neck to represent Hawaii along with a backdrop of the south wing of the U.S. Capitol Building to symbolize her service in Congress.
The details:
- The quarters feature Mink holding her landmark Title IX legislation, which was later renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act. She is remembered for authoring the law, which prohibits gender-based discrimination in education programs.
- Title IX states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
- The Mink coin reads “Equal Opportunity In Education.” It was designed by Beth Zaiken and sculpted by John P. McGraw.
- Prices for rolls and bags of the quarters range from $40 to $60, with options including quarters minted in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. The coins can be purchased directly from the U.S. Mint.
- Besides Mink, the U.S. Mint has also featured other trailblazing Asian American women in its quarters, including Hawaiian hula teacher Edith Kanakaʻole, Chinese American film star Anna May Wong and Korean American disability rights activist Stacey Park Milbern.
About Mink:
- Mink, a third-generation Japanese American born and raised on Maui, became the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman in Congress after winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964. She was also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii.
- She represented Hawaii’s at-large congressional district from 1965 to 1977 and then the state’s second congressional district from 1990 until her death in 2002.
- Besides Title IX, Mink also introduced other initiatives such as the first federal child-care bill under the Early Childhood Education Act and worked on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
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