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2020 Women's Suffrage Centennial Coin and Medal
In 2020, the United States Mint celebrates the centennial anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote throughout the United States. The Mint is celebrating with a commemorative silver dollar and a silver medal. The medal will only be sold as part of a set that also includes the commemorative dollar. A bronze medal will follow in 2021. The US Mint previously struck coins with suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul.
For further reading on this exciting upcoming coin release, read this Coin-Authority article.
A Brief History of Women's Suffrage
The women's suffrage movement in the United States sprung out of a broader women's rights movement in the mid-19th century. One of the movement's leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, wrote the text of an amendment that would give women the right to vote. Congress declined to pass the Amendment in 1878. Forty-one years later, Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment to give women the right to vote. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the Amendment in 1920, it became law. Although effective in securing the right of white women to vote, the aspiration of the Amendment wasn't fully realized until the right of African American women to vote became protected by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Designs of the 2020 US Mint Women's Suffrage Movement Coin & Medal
Christina Hess designed, and Phebe Hemphill sculpted the designs of the commemorative silver dollar. The obverse image consists of three women wearing hats, including an African American woman. The women represent the decades that the movement spanned. The year of ratification of the 19th Amendment, "1920," is inscribed on the side of the African-American woman's hat. The reverse design features the coin's date, "2020," dropping into a voting box. On the side of the box is the inscription "VOTES FOR WOMEN."
Beth Zaiken designed, and Renata Gordon sculpted the obverse design. Women's and children's hands hold up a foundation stone. The stone bears the inscription "WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE CENTENNIAL." Gordon sculpted the reverse design as well. Created by Patricia Lucas-Morris, the image depicts the 19th Amendment's text on the American flag stripes. The date of ratification, "1920," is inscribed at the bottom of this face.
