2022-D Anna May Wong

The 2022-D Anna May Wong quarter carries the Denver Mint's contribution to a release that placed the first Asian American on circulating United States coinage. Wong's life ran from her 1905 birth above her father's laundry on Figueroa Street in Los Angeles to international stardom across two continents, and the coin commemorates a career that included her breakthrough lead in "The Toll of the Sea" in 1922 and her later star turn in "Shanghai Express" opposite Marlene Dietrich in 1932. Denver struck 240,800,000 pieces, edging out Philadelphia's 226,800,000 and making the D-mint the highest-output facility for any American Women quarter issued in 2022. That production volume reflects Denver's traditional responsibility for supplying the western Federal Reserve districts, and rolls of these quarters reached banks from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific within weeks of the October 2022 launch.

Laura Gardin Fraser's 1932 Washington portrait occupies the obverse, completing a ninety-year journey from rejected design competition entry to circulating reality. The reverse, executed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program designer Emily Damstra and sculpted by John P. McGraw, captures Wong in a contemplative pose with her chin resting on her hand and a row of theater marquee lights arcing behind her shoulder. The composition is the program-standard clad cupronickel: 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel bonded to a pure copper core, 5.67 grams, 24.3 millimeters, and reeded edge. Denver strikes tend to show slightly stronger central detail on the marquee bulbs than Philadelphia coins from the same year, a useful diagnostic when grading uncertain examples alongside a mintmark check at the right rim below "IN GOD WE TRUST."

The collector market follows the same shape as the Philadelphia issue: raw rolls trade near face value, and meaningful premiums begin at Mint State 67 with sharper jumps at Mint State 68 across Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) holders. Read more on our Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.