Design Selection Process
The Secretary of the Treasury selects the honorees following consultation with the Smithsonian Institution’s American Women’s History Initiative, the National Women’s History Museum, and the Congressional Bipartisan Women’s Caucus. In 2021, the public was invited to submit recommendations for potential honorees through a web portal established by the National Women’s History Museum.
Step One – Appoint Liaisons
The United States Mint (Mint) will initiate the design process by contacting the appropriate officials within the Smithsonian Institution’s American Women’s History Initiative (SIWHI) and the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) (hereafter referred to as “legislated consultants”) to appoint one or more individuals to serve as the liaisons to the Mint for this coin program.
Step Two – Develop Design Concept Pool
In consultation with our legislated consultants, as well as representatives from other federal institutions they recommend, such as the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Gallery of Art, the Mint will develop a pool of design concepts that celebrate the important accomplishments and contributions made by women of the United States to the development and history of our country. The pool of concepts will be developed in part based on the solicitation of recommendations from the general public and in consultation with the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus. The pool of concepts should represent a wide spectrum of accomplishments and fields that include, but are not limited to, suffrage, civil rights, the abolitionist movement, government, science, space and arts, and should honor women from ethnically and geographically diverse backgrounds. The Mint will produce each concept in title or narrative format and will work with the legislated consultants and other subject matter experts to verify the concept pool as accurate and appropriate.
Step Three – Formal Concept Recommendation & Secretarial Approval
In further consultation with the legislated consultants and appropriate subject matter experts, and in consultation with members of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC), the Mint will develop formal concept recommendations using the pool of recommended design concepts established in Step Two. The recommendations may include the individual women to be honored for a single year or multiple years of the program, the number of quarter designs to be featured on quarters in each year of the program, any suggested groupings of design concepts, and the order of design concepts. The Director of the United States Mint will submit the formal concept recommendations to the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) for approval.
Step Four – Design Production
Upon Secretarial approval of the formal concept recommendations, the Mint will proceed to produce original quarter designs, focusing on aesthetic beauty, historical accuracy, appropriateness, and coinability. The Mint will collaborate with its legislated consultants and other subject matter experts as appropriate to ensure historical accuracy and proper representation with respect to candidate designs.
Step Five – Candidate Design Review
The Mint will present candidate designs, along with comments or recommendations from the legislated consultants, to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) for comment, and to the CCAC for review. The Mint will consider all comments and recommendations, and modify the candidate designs as appropriate.
Step Six – Final Selection
The Mint will present final candidate designs, along with recommendations from all stakeholders, to the Secretary for final design selection.