2023-D Eleanor Roosevelt Washington Quarter (American Women)

Denver delivered 271,800,000 Eleanor Roosevelt quarters in 2023, closely tracking Philadelphia's 284,000,000. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) transformed the role of First Lady into a platform for social advocacy and later chaired the United Nations committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. She held press conferences, wrote a daily newspaper column, and traveled to Depression-era relief sites. The reverse depicts Roosevelt against the United Nations backdrop, honoring her diplomatic legacy.

About Eleanor Roosevelt

Orphaned before age ten, Roosevelt attended Allenswood Academy in London, where headmistress Marie Souvestre taught her to think independently and speak French fluently. She kept Souvestre's portrait on her desk for the rest of her life. In the 1920s, she joined the Women's Trade Union League and taught at the Todhunter School for Girls, emphasizing current events and social responsibility. After visiting impoverished coal mining families in West Virginia, she helped launch the Arthurdale homesteading community, personally funding much of it from her own income. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences (restricted to female reporters, forcing news outlets to hire women), to write a syndicated column, and to host a weekly radio show. Roosevelt arranged for educator Mary McLeod Bethune to direct Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration. Upon the UDHR's adoption in 1948, the General Assembly gave her a standing ovation. Gallup named her the most admired woman in America in thirteen different years.