The US Treasury Mint announced on Monday that it has begun shipping quarters, which features poet and Civil Rights activist Maya Angelou, making her the first black woman to ever be featured on the coin.

The coin serves as a part of the American Women quarters programme.

Mint Deputy Director Ventris Gibson pointed out that it brings great honour to present a coin that is primarily dedicated to celebrating American women and their contributions to American history.

“Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic coin program,” he said. “Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the series, used words to inspire and uplift,” Gibson added.

Under its current program, the US Mint will issue 20 quarters over the next four years, honouring women and their achievements in shaping the nation’s history.

Additional honourees this year will be the physicist and first woman astronaut Sally Ride, and Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of Cherokee Nation.

Also honoured this year will be Nina Olero Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools, and Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced soon after taking office, that it planned to replace the seventh President of the US Andrew Jackson’s portrait on the $20 note, with abolitionist Harriet Tubman a leader in the Underground Railroad which helped ferry escaped slaves north.