Friday, January 1, 2010

America the Beautiful Quarters Continue Rotating Designs

By Dylan Chase

The United States Mint will launch a brand new series of collectible quarter dollar coins in 2010. They have called the program America the Beautiful Quarters. The series will include 56 different reverse design featuring federally designated parks and sites from each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and each United States Territory.

The series comes on the heels of the highly successful 50 State Quarters Program. Launched in 1999, the series released a total of fifty different quarters at a rate of five per year until 2008. The series helped introduce a new generation of coin collectors and allowed anyone to learn about the states by examining their pocket change. During 2009, six additional coins were issued to recognize the US Territories and the District of Columbia.

While the America the Beautiful Quarters Program will be similar to the other programs, it will have a unique focus and introduce an accompanying bullion program. The new program will feature 56 different coins, with unique depictions on the "tails side" of the coin. The "heads side" will feature a restored portrait of George Washington. Quarters will also be released at a rate of five per year, but with a single design in the final year. The new coins will be released into circulation, making potential collectors out of anyone who receives them.

What makes the new series distinctive will be the shift in focus towards National Parks and Sites. The legislation which created the program specified that this may include any area under the management or conservancy of the National Park Service (NPS), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW), or the United States Forest Service (USFS). This broad definition opens eligibility to hundreds of federally designated sites around the country and throughout the territories.

The new collectible introduced with the series will be over-sized silver bullion coins. These five ounce .999 fine silver coins will be issued each year with designs which are an exact duplicate of the quarters. The coins will be sold by the United States Mint as bullion through their network of authorized bullion purchasers.

The America the Beautiful Quarters scheduled for release during the inaugural year of 2010 will feature Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Yosemite National Park in California, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon.

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