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Woman of Color Gold Coin
Woman of Color Gold Coin

Lady Liberty To Be Depicted As Black Woman On U.S. Gold Coin For The First Time Ever

Woman of Color Gold Coin

UPDATE: The $100 gold coin that features a black Lady Liberty is now available for purchase for $1,640.

Read the original story below.

The United States Mint has unveiled a new gold coin on what is their 225th anniversary.

The coin which depicts Lady Liberty, a depiction that until now has been reserved for white women, will feature the image of an African-American woman. The theme of the Mint's 225th anniversary is "Remembering our Past, Embracing the Future."

The 24-karat gold coin, which is worth $100, will be rolled out in April. The coin will not be in wide circulation as it is mainly for collectors.

The Mint also plans to roll out gold coins featuring women from different backgrounds in the future. The depictions will include Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Indian-Americans so as "to reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States."

The move to include diversity on the U.S.'s currency picked up steam last year when news was released that abolitionist Harriet Tubman will grace the $20 bill. Tubman will be the first African-American to be on a U.S. paper bill. Rhett Jeppson, the Principal Deputy Director of the United States Mint, wrote in a press release posted to the U.S. Mint's website:

"Earlier today, I was honored to join Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Deputy Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin to unveil designs for the 2017 American Liberty Gold Coin.

The unveiling not only marked a historic milestone for the allegorical Lady Liberty, who has been featured on American coinage since the late 1790s, but also served to kick-off the Mint’s 225th anniversary—a year-long public awareness campaign about its mission, facilities and employees.

I am very proud of the fact that the United States Mint is rooted in the Constitution. Our founding fathers realized the critical need for our fledgling nation to have a respected monetary system, and over the last 225 years, the Mint has never failed in its mission to enable America’s growth and stability by protecting assets entrusted to us and manufacturing coins and medals to facilitate national commerce.

We have chosen “Remembering our Past, Embracing the Future” as the Mint’s theme for our 225th Anniversary year. This beautiful coin truly embodies that theme. The coin demonstrates our roots in the past through such traditional elements as the inscriptions United States of America, Liberty, E Pluribus Unum and In God We Trust. We boldly look to the future by casting Liberty in a new light, as an African-American woman wearing a crown of stars, looking forward to ever brighter chapters in our Nation’s history book. The 2017 American Liberty Gold Coin is the first in a series of 24-karat gold coins the United States Mint will issue biennially. These coins will feature designs that depict an allegorical Liberty in a variety of contemporary forms including designs representing Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Indian-Americans among others to reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States."

Lenny Kravitz, Grace Jones, Lauryn Hill, Lion Babe, Thundercat, SZA & More Rock The Afropunk Festival 2015 in Brooklyn, NY.