State Park Quarters

Really tickled by the State Parks series because there are some definite design challenges to come. The US Mint has gotten lucky thus far because Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite are sites that majority of Americans know and love. Even the designs for next year are well thought out and hopefully will be executed. Interesting how the CCAC made no recommendations of the fifth quarter of 2011, Chicasaw National Refuge (Oklahoma). At least two of the designs were passible and reasonably picturesque.

America the Obscure? Here are some reasons:

El Yunque National Forest (Puerto Rico 2013): would be neat to have a banner reading "Yunque Go Home" on the coin, this is the first time I've heard of the place. However, it looks inviting.

Bombay Hook National Refuge (Delaware 2015): I've been to Red Hook and Sandy Hook in neighboring New Jersey. God help this quarter if there isn't a lighthouse on the property, but a hooded merganser duck would be pretty cool on the coin.

Tallgrass National Prairie (Kansas 2020): blades of grass or a flat parcel of land punctuated by a single tree isn't at all interesting on a coin. Maybe there is a 19th Century homestead there that could shown.

National Park of American Samoa (2020): I could not even get the NPS website to tell me anything about this property, so according to them it does not currently exist.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great series of quarters with some truly intriguing design possibilities at some beautiful and historic places.  I really, really hope the USS Cairo shows up on the Vicksburg (Mississippi) quarter next year. The five designs this year were really spectacular, particularly in proof and inaugurating a worthy successor to the 50 State Quarters program. It's just too bad that the mintages are going to be so limited that the majority of the coin spending public won't see them and thus learn about the places depicted on the coins.  The mint at least is heading in the right direction with this series, I just hope mediocrity doesn't creep somewhere in the middle.  

Getting to some of these places is difficult. Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) is a place I'd love to see. But it's a few hours north of Gallup, and spending a night in Gallup would not be high on my list.

Neil, Chaco is worth the day trip from Santa Fe or Farmington, NM. Very spiritual place, you can almost sense the history of the people that had gone on there. We went at the crack of dawn the summer solstice last year for the astronomical observation and among the 100 or so people there the hush was surreal, to say the least. It was a memorable once in a lifetime experience. glad I went, although yes, it was difficult to get to.

I just get my first state park quarter in change, Hot Springs. It looks much better in hand than I expected.

Welcome leg end. I consider you to be the foremost authority on Hot Springs quarters dd. Please keep us informed. Any word on your submittals?

I found several Hot Springs quarters while searching through boxes. Sadly all of them had tons of gook and grime pasted on them. Besides that I have not spotted one since. Kinda upset I didn't grab a roll or two of these when my bank had a full box of em.

Holy cow. Box after box in NC, some first strike, it appears. Some perhaps DMPL, lots of odd, die scratched fields. I arrived at exactly the last roll in a two week window, evidently. But it appears that the government is selling more than we think, giving me pause, having seen what the State Quarter mintages ended at. The Hot Springs numbers have been creeping up, despite the Mint announcing a cessation of minting. Gotta post some pics tomorrow of the fields, as there are unusual die scratches that sometimes portend of the mint trying to fix something elsewhere on the coin.

The bust of Washington on the obverse was changed for 2010.

It's intended to appear more like the original
1932 John Flanagan bust.

However, the design's relief is much lower
(flatter) than it was in 1932.