Celebrate International Women’s Day with Coins

March 8 is known around the world as International Women’s Day, a global holiday honoring the many cultural, artistic, political, economic, and social achievements of women. It’s also an opportunity to recognize women who are inextricably linked to numismatics by way of their appearances on coins. Let’s take a moment to pay homage to three of the most widely recognizable women who have appeared on coins and medals struck by the United States Mint and issued by nations around the world.

Susan B. Anthony

Iconic suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony lived from 1820 through 1906 and championed for equal rights for most of her life. While she didn’t live to see the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote in the United States, Anthony’s efforts helped clear the pathway toward granting women full voting rights across the nation as well as broadening many other opportunities for females in the U.S. and beyond. During the height of the Equal Rights Movement in the 1970s, Susan B. Anthony was aptly honored on the nation’s first mini dollar coin. The Susan B. Anthony Dollar was struck from 1979 through 1981 and was reprised for a final year of production in 1999.

Queen Elizabeth II

What can we say about the world's longest-ruling female monarch? Not only was Queen Elizabeth II beloved around the globe, but she also appeared on billions of coins struck in her native Great Britain and those that circulated in her country’s many Commonwealth nations. Born in 1926, Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne in 1952 after her father, King George VI, passed away. She was crowned in 1953, which was the first year coins began bearing her likeness. She passed away in 2022 at the age of 96, having reigned as Queen of England for 70 years.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun who founded Missionaries of Charity and spent most of her life serving those who were in poor health and had next to nothing. Born in 1910 in what was then the Ottoman Empire, Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu MC moved to Ireland at the age of 18 and then to India, where she lived for most of the rest of her life helping the sick, with a focus on serving those who were dying from leprosy, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. She won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize and was honored during her life as one of the most important figures of the 20th century. She passed away in 1997 at the age of 87.

Hundreds of women have appeared on coins around the world. In fact, the PCGS Set Registry offers an exciting opportunity to build a set of coins featuring 100 of the greatest women on coins. You can build this set on the PCGS Set Registry totally for free, providing an excellent chance to celebrate some of history’s most important figures while showcasing your collection to the public on a safe and fun platform – the first of its kind anywhere in numismatics.