The United States Mint has announced the release of a new quarter coin as part of its American Women Quarters Program, this time honouring Dr. Vera Rubin, an astronomer known for her groundbreaking research on galaxy rotation and dark matter.
Rubin's work in the 1970s provided some of the first compelling evidence for the existence of dark matter, an invisible substance that makes up 85% of the total mass of the Universe.
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Her observations showed that stars at the edges of galaxies rotate much faster than they should be, which can only be explained if there is a lot of unseen mass within the galaxy.
The coin is released as part of the American Women Quarters Program, launched in 2022, which recognises notable women from US history across a variety of disciplines including science, civil rights and the arts.
The reverse of the new coin features a portrait of Vera Rubin gazing upward, set against a background of a spiral galaxy and other celestial objects.
It includes the inscriptions 'Dr. Vera Rubin', 'Quarter Doller', 'E Pluribus Unum', 'United States of America' and 'Dark Matter'.
The obverse – the 'heads' side – continues the series’s standard design featuring George Washington, based on Laura Gardin Fraser’s original 1932 artwork.
It includes the inscriptions “Liberty', 'In God We Trust' and '2025'.
