Dr. Sally Ride Quarter: Value, Mintage and Errors
The 2022 Dr. Sally Ride quarter is worth 25 cents in circulated condition. 553,200,000 were struck, 275,200,000 at Philadelphia and 278,000,000 at Denver. Released on 21 March 2022, it was the second coin of the program. The Mint placed E PLURIBUS UNUM over the Earth on this coin to indicate that, of all women in the United States, Dr. Ride was the first into space.
What this coin looks like
The reverse of the Dr. Sally Ride quarter shows Ride next to a window on the space shuttle. The Mint says the design was inspired by her words: "But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth." The inscription E PLURIBUS UNUM is intentionally placed over the Earth; the Mint explains that it indicates that, out of all women in the United States, Dr. Ride was the first into space.
The other reverse inscriptions are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, QUARTER DOLLAR and DR. SALLY RIDE. The design is by Elana Hagler, an Artistic Infusion Program artist, and it was sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill. The second coin in the American Women Quarters Program, it began shipping from the Philadelphia and Denver Mints on 21 March 2022.
The reverse inscriptions read:
- E PLURIBUS UNUM
- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
- QUARTER DOLLAR
- DR. SALLY RIDE
The obverse is the same on all 20 coins in the series: George Washington facing right, with LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, the date and the mint mark. The mint mark is to the right of Washington's neck, below the date. P is Philadelphia, D is Denver, S is San Francisco and appears only on proof and collector issues.
Is my Dr. Sally Ride quarter an error?
Yes, one is documented, and it is the most valuable American Women Quarter ever sold: a 2022-P Dr. Sally Ride quarter struck on a Jefferson nickel planchet, graded NGC MS 67 and believed unique. The nickel blank is 5.00 g and 21.21 mm instead of 5.670 g and 24.26 mm, so the undersized planchet cut off parts of LIBERTY, QUARTER DOLLAR and the honoree's name. It sold for $10,181 at GreatCollections on 30 April 2023. That one sale is the source of nearly every "$10,000 quarter" headline about this series, including the ones attached to other coins.
What people most often bring to this coin are the three claims that attach to every coin in the series: a faint G in IN GOD WE TRUST (not an error, it is the typeface), flat shiny doubling on the lettering (machine doubling, not a doubled die), and small raised lumps from die chips. The errors page has nine tests that separate a genuine mint error from damage, and the short list of errors that are actually documented in this program.
What is it worth?
| Found in change | 25 cents |
|---|---|
| Uncirculated, from a Mint roll or bag | $1 to $2 |
| Certified mint state | A few dollars, rising to roughly $86 at the top of the population for the series |
| Clad proof (S mint) | Typically less than the cost of grading it |
| Silver proof (S mint, .999 fine) | A floor set by the silver price, plus a small premium |
Values as of October 2026. The full reasoning, including the four cases where a coin in this series is genuinely worth more, is on the value page.
How many were made
| Philadelphia (P) | 275,200,000 |
|---|---|
| Denver (D) | 278,000,000 |
| Total | 553,200,000 |
| Rank in the series | 16 of 20 by mintage, lowest first |
| San Francisco (S) | Not published by the Mint |
San Francisco (S) figures are not shown because the Mint has never published per-design mintages for S-mint American Women Quarters. Any S figure published elsewhere is a secondary-source estimate, and the two most commonly cited sets contradict each other.
See the full mintage table for all 20 designs, or the key date page for where this coin sits in the series.
Collector versions
Besides the Philadelphia and Denver coins in circulation, the Mint sold three San Francisco versions of the 2022 Dr. Sally Ride quarter directly to collectors. None were released into circulation.
| 2022-S uncirculated | Only in the 2022 three-roll set (40 P, 40 D, 40 S), $54.00 at issue |
|---|---|
| 2022-S clad proof | In the 2022 American Women Quarters Proof Set, $21.00 at issue, 42,821 sets sold |
| 2022-S silver proof | In the 2022 American Women Quarters Silver Proof Set, $73.00 at issue, 57,768 sets sold |
Set sales are as reported by CoinNews on 21 October 2026. Details on the proof and silver proof sets and the Mint rolls and bags.
Who was Dr. Sally Ride?
Sally Kristen Ride was born on 26 May 1951 in the Los Angeles area of California. As a girl she was a serious tennis player, coached for a time by the former world number one Alice Marble, and she attended Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles on a partial tennis scholarship.
She enrolled at Swarthmore College in 1968 and won the Eastern Intercollegiate Women's Singles title, but in 1970 she left to try professional tennis before deciding against that career. At Stanford University she earned a bachelor of science in physics and a bachelor of arts in English in 1973, a master's degree in physics in 1975 and a doctorate in physics in 1978, with research on the interaction of X-rays with the interstellar medium.
While finishing her doctorate she answered a NASA announcement seeking astronaut candidates. In January 1978 she was selected as one of the first six women in NASA's Astronaut Group 8, and she completed training in August 1979. Before flying she served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for the STS-2 and STS-3 shuttle missions, the first woman in that role, and helped develop the shuttle's robotic arm.
On 18 June 1983 she launched aboard the space shuttle Challenger on mission STS-7, becoming the first American woman in space and, at 32, the youngest American to fly in space. During the six-day mission, which landed at Edwards Air Force Base on 24 June, she used the robotic arm to deploy and retrieve a satellite. Her second flight, STS-41-G, again aboard Challenger, ran from 5 to 13 October 1984.
She was training for a third mission when Challenger was lost in January 1986. She served on the presidential commission (the Rogers Commission) that investigated the accident, heading its operations subcommittee, then led NASA's first strategic planning effort, which produced the 1987 report NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space. In 2003 she served on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the only person to serve on both investigations.
After leaving NASA in 1987 she held a fellowship at Stanford's Center for International Security and Arms Control. In 1989 she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego and director of the California Space Institute, retiring from the university in 2007 as professor emeritus. In 2001 she co-founded Sally Ride Science, a science education company, with her partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, with whom she also wrote several science books for children.
Sally Ride died of pancreatic cancer on 23 July 2012 at her home in La Jolla, California, at the age of 61. On 20 May 2013 President Barack Obama announced that she would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously; it was presented to O'Shaughnessy at the White House on 20 November 2013.
She was selected as a physicist and the first American woman in space, who later became a leader in science education.
The design
| Reverse designer | Elana Hagler, U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program |
|---|---|
| Reverse sculptor | Phebe Hemphill, U.S. Mint medallic artist |
| Obverse | Laura Gardin Fraser, designed and sculpted, 1931 |
| Released | 21 March 2022 |
Specifications
| Composition, circulating | 91.67% copper, 8.33% nickel (pure copper core, copper-nickel outer layers) |
|---|---|
| Composition, silver proof | .999 fine silver |
| Weight | 5.670 g clad, 6.343 g silver proof |
| Diameter | 24.26 mm |
| Thickness | 1.75 mm |
| Edge | reeded, 119 reeds |
| Mints | Philadelphia (P) and Denver (D) for circulation; San Francisco (S) for proof and collector issues |
No American Women Quarter was struck in 90% silver. The Mint moved its silver proof sets to .999 fine silver with the 2019-dated issues, before this program began.
Frequently asked questions
- How much is the Dr. Sally Ride quarter worth?
- Twenty-five cents in circulated condition. An uncirculated example from a Mint roll or bag trades for one to two dollars.
- How many Dr. Sally Ride quarters were made?
- 553,200,000 in total: 275,200,000 at Philadelphia and 278,000,000 at Denver.
- When was the Dr. Sally Ride quarter released?
- It entered circulation on 21 March 2022.
- Who designed the Dr. Sally Ride quarter?
- The reverse was designed by Elana Hagler of the Mint's Artistic Infusion Program and sculpted by U.S. Mint medallic artist Phebe Hemphill. The obverse, shared by all 20 coins, is by Laura Gardin Fraser.
- What is on the back of the Sally Ride quarter?
- Dr. Sally Ride beside a space shuttle window with the Earth below, inspired by her remark that when she wasn't working she was usually at a window looking down at Earth.
Sources
- Mintage figures: U.S. Mint circulating coin production dataset.
- Designer and sculptor credits: U.S. Mint, cross-checked against the artists' initials on the coin.
- Coin photograph: United States Mint image.
- United States Mint Announces Designs for 2022 American Women Quarters Program Coins (6 October 2021)
- United States Mint Begins Shipping American Women Quarters Program Coins Honoring Dr. Sally Ride (21 March 2022)
- Sally Ride, Wikipedia
- Sally K. Ride, NASA biographical data
- Sally Ride, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Last verified: October 2026. Mintage figures are final.