Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative coin

The 19th Amendment provided the women of United States of America the right to vote and was ratified on August 18th, 1920, a century back. The right was not given easily. It came after decades of protests and hardships faced by women from different walks of life. This year celebrates the 100th year of the movement called the Women’s suffrage movement.

The Women’s Suffrage movement

The earliest instance of women demanding the right to vote was in Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. There were many other women’s conventions after that and two years later, came the National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. These conventions are considered the starting point of the Women’s suffrage movement as it culminated in the release of the ‘Declaration of Sentiments’ by Stanton and a list of resolutions on ‘the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman’. The right to vote was at the core of these resolutions.

National Organizations exclusive to the suffrage of women were initiated by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1869. Lucy Stone started another such organization aimed at Women’s suffrage. The two merged in 1890 to form the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), also had Women’s suffrage in its agenda.

Alice Paul, the American suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, created the National Women’s Party in 1916. Her party took a slightly militant stance her group of protestors the ‘Silent Sentinels’ picketed the White house in 1917. 200 supporters were arrested. The Nineteenth Amendment became part of the U.S. constitution after a tough fight for votes in the Congress and state legislatures. It states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

The Design

The U.S. mint has released a Commemorative coin to honor the movement on the exact date of the ratification of the 19th amendment. The obverse design features overlapping profiles of three distinct women. Each woman is wearing a different type of hat to symbolize the many decades the suffrage movement spanned. The figure in the foreground is wearing a cloche hat with an art deco pattern and a button with the year of the 19th Amendment’s ratification. The inscriptions “LIBERTY,” “$1,” and “E PLURIBUS UNUM” encircle the design.

The reverse design shows “2020” being dropped into a ballot box, styled with art deco elements to indicate the artistic style of the era. “VOTES FOR WOMEN” is inscribed inside a circle on the front of the box. The inscriptions “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “IN GOD WE TRUST” are on the ballot box.