For The Love Of Money: Black Icons On U.S. Currency

1796

English copper halfpenny token used by British abolitionists as an anti-slavery communication and propaganda device

Obverse:
Features chained African male slave, naked and kneeling

Reverse:
Features two hands clasped in friendship

1838

American copper hard times token used by American abolitionists as an anti-slavery communication and propaganda device

Obverse:
Features chained African female slave, naked and kneeling

Reverse:
Features laurel wreath

1946

Booker T. Washington was the first free Black person featured on US currency and on a US Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin

Obverse:
Features Booker T. Washington portrait

Reverse:
Features New York University Hall of Fame, Slave Cabin

Coin designed by Isaac Scott Hathaway, the first Black artist whose work was produced by the US Mint

1951

George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington were the first free Black men featured on US currency

Obverse:
Features George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington portraits

Reverse:
Features simple United States Of America map

Coin designed by Isaac Scott Hathaway, the first Black artist whose work was produced by the US Mint

1997

Jackie Robinson was the first major league athlete and only Black person honored on a US Commemorative $5.00 Gold Coin

Obverse:
Features Robinson in later years as a Civil Rights Leader

Reverse:
Features Baseball design

1997

Jackie Robinson was the first major league athlete and first Black person featured on a US Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin

Obverse:
Features Robinson stealing home plate

Reverse:
Features 50th anniversary Jackie Robinson Foundation logo

1998

Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave, was the first person killed during the Boston Massacre in 1770, the event that triggered the Revolutionary War

Obverse:
Features Crispus Attucks portrait

Reverse:
Features Black Patriot family sculpture, a proposed detail that was considered for the Black Patriots Memorial

Created by Ed Dwight, the second Black artist to design for the US Mint

1999

The NJ State Quarter was the first coin authorized for circulation depicting a Black person (see Reverse)

Obverse:
Features George Washington portrait

Reverse:
Features a Black slave among the patriots helping row the boat, symbolizing Black patriots who fought in the Revolutionary war

2003

The Missouri State Quarter was the second coin authorized for circulation depicting a Black person (see Reverse)

Obverse:
Features George Washington portrait

Reverse:
Features Louis and Clark and a third man, York, who was Clark’s Black slave

2007

Commemorates the 400th anniversary of the colony at Jamestown, VA, the first permanent English settlement in America. Features an African woman

Obverse:
Features the Three Faces of Diversity

Reverse:
Features three ships - Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery, which brought the first settlers to Jamestown

2007

Commemorates the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, in Arkansas

Obverse:
Features nine students, accompanied by an armed soldier, walking to school

Reverse:
Features Little Rock Central High School

2009

The D.C. Quarter commemorates Duke Ellington, the first Black person and musician to be prominently featured on a coin authorized for circulation

Obverse:
Features George Washington Portrait

Duke Ellington, D.C. native son, was an internationally renowned jazz musician and composer

Reverse:
Features famous jazz musician Duke Ellington at the piano

2013

Commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of the USA

Obverse:
Features three girls, including a Black girl scout, who represent the different ages and diversity of Girl Scouts

Reverse:
Features iconic profiles of Girl Scouts of the USA

2014

Commemorates the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Civil Rights Act

Obverse:
Features three people holding hands at a civil rights march. Man holds sign that reads “We Shall Overcome"

Reverse:
Features three flames intertwined to symbolize freedom of education, freedom to vote, freedom to control one’s own destiny

Design inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2016

Harpers Ferry Historic Park Quarter commemorates the site of many significant historic events, which was declared a National Historic Park in 1944

Obverse:
Features George Washington Portrait

Reverse:
Features John Brown’s Fort, the site of John Brown’s last stand during his raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory

2017

The Frederick Douglass Historic Site is the first Black National Historic Site to be prominently featured on a coin authorized for circulation

Obverse:
Features George Washington Portrait

Commemorates Frederick Douglass and his Washington, D.C. home which was declared a National Historic Site in 1962

Reverse:
Features Frederick Douglass at a writing desk, his home in the background

1998
Bessie Coleman brass concept coin recommendation for the new gold dollar coin

Obverse:
Features Bessie Coleman portrait, 13 stars above the horizon, symbolizing future colonization of space

Bessie Coleman was the world's first Black woman aviator, first Black woman to earn an international pilot’s license 3 years before Earhart

Reverse:
Features eagle soaring across the sun, 50 rays

1998

Bessie Coleman silver concept coin recommendation for the new gold dollar coin

Obverse:
Features Bessie Coleman portrait, 13 stars above the horizon, symbolizing future colonization of space

Bessie Coleman was the first Black woman to make a public flight, learning to fly in France because U.S. flying schools would not admit her

Reverse:
Features eagle soaring across the sun, 50 rays