United States Mint Begins Shipping 2025 American Women Quarters™ Honoring Dr. Vera Rubin on June 2
WASHINGTON – The United States Mint (Mint) will begin shipping the American Women Quarters (AWQ) Program coin honoring Dr. Vera Rubin on June 2, the third in this series for 2025. The Mint facilities at Philadelphia and Denver manufacture these circulating quarters.
Dr. Vera Rubin was a pioneering astronomer whose observations of galaxy rotation provided the first persuasive evidence of dark matter. This major scientific discovery transformed our understanding of the universe.
“The third coin of the American Women Quarters Program for 2025 celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Vera Rubin,” said Kristie McNally, the Mint’s Acting Director. “Dr. Rubin gathered crucial data to support the existence of the unseen material that binds entire galaxies together and is believed to make up more than 80 percent of the mass of the universe. The data on dark matter from dozens of galaxies that Rubin presented to the International Astronomical Union in 1985 ultimately changed scientific conceptions of the universe and opened new paths in both astronomy and physics.”
The reverse (tails) design features a profile of Dr. Vera Rubin gazing upward, smiling as she contemplates the cosmos. She is surrounded by a spiral galaxy and other celestial bodies. Inscriptions include “DR. VERA RUBIN,” “QUARTER DOLLAR,” “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” and “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” The additional inscription, “DARK MATTER,” the invisible mass found in our galaxy, is inscribed at the bottom of the design.
Artist Infusion Program Designer Christina Hess designed the image, which Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw sculpted.
“Dr. Rubin’s story exemplifies strength, dedication, and determination, and it was a great honor to illustrate her portrait and legacy,” said Hess. “By positioning her portrait off-center and toward the upper right, I aimed to move the audience’s gaze upward, symbolizing exploration beyond the coin’s boundaries, evoking a sense of infinite possibility and continuous motion.”
“Vera Rubin was an American astronomer and genius,” said McGraw. “Layering her portrait with the galaxy in the background made for a fun and challenging sculpt. I feel honored that I was given the opportunity to memorialize her and her contributions to science on a coin.”
Each coin in the AWQ series features a common obverse (heads) design depicting a portrait of George Washington. This design was originally composed and sculpted by Laura Gardin Fraser as a candidate entry for the 1932 quarter, which honored the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. The inscriptions are “LIBERTY,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” and “2025.”
View an image of the Dr. Vera Rubin quarter reverse here.
Each AWQ honoree is a powerful, inspiring example of the breadth, depth, and range of accomplishments, and the experiences demonstrated by these extraordinary women. Coins featuring additional honorees will continue to ship until the end of the AWQ program in 2025.
Authorized by Public Law 116-330, the American Women Quarters Program features coins with reverse (tails) designs emblematic of the accomplishments and contributions of American women. Beginning in 2022 and continuing through 2025, the Mint is issuing five quarters in each of these years. The ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse group of individuals honored through this program reflects a wide range of accomplishments and fields, including suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts.
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The AWQ program is an excellent way to remind future generations what can be accomplished with vision, determination, and a desire to improve opportunities for all. Subscribe to the program today to ensure fulfillment of your favorite product through 2025.
About the United States Mint
Congress created the United States Mint in 1792, and the Mint became part of the Department of the Treasury in 1873. As the Nation’s sole manufacturer of legal tender coinage, the Mint is responsible for producing circulating coinage for the Nation to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint also produces numismatic products, including proof, uncirculated, and commemorative coins; Congressional Gold Medals; silver and bronze medals; and silver and gold bullion coins. Its numismatic programs are self-sustaining and operate at no cost to taxpayers.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Visit https://www.usmint.gov/about for information about the United States Mint.
From: U.S. Mint Press Release
Vera Rubin was an instructor at the first Vatican Observatory Summer School in 1986, whose theme was “The Structure and Dynamics of Galaxies”
The VOSS86 T-shirt the faculty is wearing in the image above, has a green elliptical and gold spiral galaxies. A tradition that continues today, each student is called up and presented with their T-shirt and a scroll certificate of their “graduation”.
I remember the faculty marched in to the sound of Pomp & Circumstance, which I played from a gramophone. Remember those? – Fr. Chris Corbally, S.J.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory
NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, is a brand new astronomy and astrophysics facility under construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile, with first light expected in 2025. It’s named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter.
Rubin Observatory is the first of its kind: its mirror design, camera sensitivity, telescope speed, and computing infrastructure are each in an entirely new category.
The 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope at Rubin Observatory, equipped with the LSST Camera — the largest digital camera ever built — will take detailed images of the southern hemisphere sky for 10 years, covering the entire sky every few nights and creating an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse record — the largest astronomical movie of all time. This unique movie will bring the night sky to life, yielding a treasure trove of discoveries: asteroids and comets, pulsating stars, and supernova explosions.
With Rubin data we will gain a better understanding of our Universe, delve into the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, and reveal answers to questions we have yet to imagine.
– https://rubinobservatory.org/about
