First named woman depicted on a United States coin

On 13 June 1893, the Isabella Quarter dollar was first struck for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, making Isabella I of Castile the first named woman ever depicted on a United States coin. The commemorative design showed her portrait on the obverse and a female spinner on the reverse.

Authorized by Congress to honor the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage and the role of women in American industry, the coin explicitly identified "Isabella" by name, a distinction not afforded to allegorical female figures like Liberty on earlier U.S. coinage. The quarter was marketed to raise funds for the Board of Lady Managers of the exposition, linking women’s organizational leadership to numismatic innovation.

This numismatic first is historically significant as a rare official recognition of a foreign queen’s impact on American history and an early public commemoration of a woman in U.S. civic iconography. It reflects late 19th-century efforts by women’s groups to claim space within national narratives of progress and discovery.

For women’s history, the Isabella Quarter illustrates how Isabella’s image was repurposed centuries after her death to symbolize female agency in exploration and industry, highlighting evolving attitudes toward women’s visibility in state symbols and the contested legacy of her sponsorship of Columbus’s voyage.