2022 Maya Angelou Quarter

I made a late evening run to the grocery store earlier this week. After picking up a few necessities, I went to the cash register, and three people were huddled around the open draw looking at the coins.

After putting my items on the belt, I asked why there were looking at the coins. One looked up and said they were looking for the Maya Angelou quarter, and another said that they were reading about Angelou in high school when their teacher talked about the quarter.

One looked at me and asked if I knew that the next quarter would honor Sally Ride and started to tell me about Dr. Ride. After I told them that I watched the shuttle launch on television, they thought it was neat that these quarters were in circulation.

They showed no interest in the national parks quarters as they looked at the quarters when one found an Ohio quarter. Although it has the hanging astronaut, I asked if they found the Florida quarter with the Space Shuttle on the reverse.

They realized I understood the quarters and asked if there was a reference to the themes on the quarters. After pointing them to the U.S. Mint website, I told them about the Red Book. I showed them some of the quarter designs on my smartphone and then the Native American dollars.

Aside from not knowing that the U.S. Mint struck dollar coins, I showed them the 2015 Mohawk Iron Workers dollar, a personal favorite. One showed interest and asked if they had created a design for the Code Talkers, and I responded “💯percent” and showed them the 2016 dollar.

Three high school students were now working at a local grocery store, looking at the coins in the cash register for designs representing history. They may not be looking for silver coins like I did in the early 1970s, but it’s change hunting looking for something neat.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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