2022-D Sally Ride

Sally Ride trained as a physicist at Stanford before joining NASA in 1978, and her June 18, 1983, Challenger flight on STS-7 made her the first American woman in space. She later flew again in 1984 and co-founded Sally Ride Science to focus on STEM education for girls. The American Women Quarters Program honored her in 2022 as one of the five inaugural-year honorees, and Denver struck 278,000,000 of these quarters, slightly more than Philadelphia's 275,200,000 total. Denver historically supplies western Federal Reserve districts, and most circulating Ride quarters found in pocket change west of the Mississippi carry the D mintmark below the bust on the obverse.

Elana Hagler's reverse design, sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, shows Ride in profile aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, gazing through the flight deck window at the curve of Earth below. The composition pulls from Ride's own descriptions of looking back at the planet during her STS-7 mission. The obverse uses Laura Gardin Fraser's Washington portrait, the same 1932 design that Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon set aside for the original Washington quarter in favor of John Flanagan's portrait. The American Women program brought Fraser's work onto circulating coinage at last. The coin is 91.67% copper and 8.33% nickel over a pure copper core, weighs 5.67 grams, measures 24.3 millimeters across, and carries a reeded edge. Authentication on a Denver Ride turns on the D mintmark, the satin business strike texture, and strike quality across the window framing and the visible portion of Earth on the reverse. Late-die-state coins from this Denver run sometimes show softer detail in Ride's hair and the Earth's curvature.

Circulated D-mint Ride quarters are common, while Mint State coins certified MS67 and higher by Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) command growing collector premiums. For broader collecting strategy, see the Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.