The Value of a Quarter Dollar

February 18th, 2025

Currently Reading: Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

Currently Watching: Coco

Currently Listening: Train Whistles Outside My Window

I've started collecting the American Women Quarters because I don't know what else to do.

Our democracy is being tested and people are protesting. They're organizing. They're preparing. And I'm...collecting quarters. Not for future resale value. Any serious coin collector will tell you new quarters don't have any silver in them, nor do they have any value more than 25¢. If I were sensible, I'd be collecting hard copies of books or starting a food garden or sending pink slips to members of congress or something. Instead I'm...collecting coins.

When I got my change back, I saw that shiny Title IX looking back at me. "Equal Opportunites in Education" it said. And a woman...Patsy Takemoto Mink. I didn't know anything about her. The US Mint website describes Mink as the "first woman of color to serve in Congress" which is insanely cool, but also they don't mention her legistlation advancing women's rights and education. I want to learn more about her. She seems rad as hell.

I shoved the quarter in the side zipper of my pocketbook. I knew I had to keep it. If this great stress test of our democracy fails I needed to keep proof that women were valued. That women had equal opportunities in education. That Title IX existed. That Patsy Mink existed. Even if that seems pointless and irrational.

I mean thousands of these coins will be minted! Surely there won't be a shortage! Surely they will be circulating for decades! I mean, I'm still finding those 50 States quarters I collected (and then spent) as a child! Who cares if I ever collect the whole set? That's $5 I could be using to buy half a dozen eggs!

That's the thing about the early stages of a coup. I'm just a normal person, looking at a coin and thinking I need to save this. Because I'm not some great political theorist. I'm not a historian and I am NOT ready to die for my cause. I'm just a citizen who wants to cling on to what the United States could be without all the corporate greed and white supremecy.

So if you're feeling out of control and flooded by the news, might I suggest finding one thing you'd like to save. So even if it all collapses, you still have that one thing. As silly as it seems. You still have that one thing from before.

--Beacon