Coin honoring Sally Ride, first US woman in space, enters circulation

The first woman to fly into space lifted off on a new mission that1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556

The Dr. Sally Ride quarter is the second coin in the American Women Quarters program. The 25-cent pieces will be on display at the Mint in Philadelphia and Denver for three to four weeks before being put in the change at stores.

Sally Ride captured the nation's imagination as a symbol of the ability of women to break barriers. Ventris Gibson, deputy director of the U.S. Mint, said in a statement that the quarter provides the Mint with another opportunity to connect America through coins.

The first to honor Ride was the second U.S. coin. A physicist and later a leading advocate for science education, Ride joined NASA in 1978 as a member of the first group of astronauts to include women and minorities.

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She was the first American and third woman worldwide to go into space when she was on the space shuttle Challenger. She was the youngest American to fly into space at the age of 32. Ride spent two weeks in space with her second mission.

Some of the first women in space.

The quarter shows Ride next to a window on the flight deck of the space shuttle. The pose was inspired by something Ride once said, "But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth."

The coin was designed by Elana Hagler, a member of the U.S. Mint's artistic Infusion Program. The inscription "E Pluribus Unum", Latin for "out of many, one", is located over Earth, next to the United States, and represents that Ride was the first American woman in space.

Sally would be moved by this great honor, according to her life partner and co-founder and executive director of Sally Ride Science.

The Dr. Sally Ride quarter is one of the products the U.S. Mint is offering for sale. The 100 coin-bags and three-roll sets, as well as two-roll and proof sets, as well as a decorative ornament featuring the Ride quarter, are still expected to be available when they go on sale on March 22.

Each year, the U.S. Mint issues five new American Women Quarters, each featuring designs that honor the accomplishments and contributions of American women. The coin preceding Ride's depicted Maya Angelou, a poet and social activist.

The first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Anna May Wong, and the leader of the New Mexico suffragist movement will be honored in the year 2022. Suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space and the arts will be subjects of future years.

Laura Gardin Fraser created a portrait of George Washington to mark his 200th birthday and is depicted on the heads side of the American Women quarters.

The Ohio State Quarter featured an engraving of an Apollo moonwalker, and the Sally Ride quarter is the second to depict an astronauts.

John Glenn, the first American in space, and the Apollo 11 crew, as well as a Native American astronauts, have been depicted in coins and medallions by the U.S. Mint.

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