Patsy Mink to be honored on commemorative U.S. quarter

Late Hawaii U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink will be honored in the 2024 American Women Quarters Program, drawing applause from Hawaii U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono.

The U.S. Mint on Wednesday announced that Mink, the first woman of color to serve in U.S. Congress, will be honored in a commemorative quarter through the program.

“Patsy Mink was a champion for social justice, equality, and civil rights—she was a trailblazer in every sense of the word,” Hirono said in a statement. “As the first woman of color to serve in Congress and a lead author of Title IX, Congresswoman Mink worked to ensure that all women in our country have every opportunity men have. I’m glad to see the Mint honoring Rep. Mink as part of the American Women Quarters Program so that people all across our country can learn more about her immeasurable contributions to Hawaii and our nation.”

Hirono wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in 2021 urging the Mint to include Mink in the American Women Quarters Program, which features coins with designs emblematic of the accomplishments and contributions of prominent women in the U.S.

Contributions from a wide spectrum of fields, including suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts. The Mint is issuing five coins with different reverse designs annually over a four-year period, from 2022 through 2025.

Hirono had also successfully advocated for the inclusion of Edith Kanakaʻole, a Hawaiian cultural icon who had played an important role in the Hawaiian renaissance in the 1970s, in the program.