US Mint Makes Lady Liberty Black For 225th Anniversary

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By Amber Randall

The U.S. Mint put a black Lady Liberty on the face of its $100 gold coin to celebrate its 225th anniversary.

This year’s coin features a black woman for the first time, reports USA Today. Usually, a white woman is featured on the main design for the coin.

Elsia Basnight, who works as the Mint’s chief of staff, called the new design “groundbreaking.” Many of the federal advisory committees on coins have wanted to bring more diversity to United States coins, Basnight explained.

“Our hope is that this coin really gets people thinking and talking about what liberty looks like and represents to them,” Basnight declared. “Lady Liberty, depicted in coinage throughout the years, is modeled after our society’s continued evolution – and as we as a nation continue to evolve, so does its representation.”

The front side of the coin portrays Lady Liberty’s face with the dates 1792 and 2017 and the phrase “In God We Trust.” On the opposite side of the coin is a flying eagle and the phrases “United States of America” and “E Pluribus Unum.”

The artist who created this year’s coin design said he tried to “put forward the possibility of having a Lady Liberty who’s ethnically different than what we see in the past.”

The coin will be released April 6 of this year. There will be more ethnically diverse coins in the future, with some coins featuring Latin, Asian and Indian women, according to the Mint.

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