News Flash: America The Beautiful Quarters Program

The United States Mint announced the 56 sites that will be featured as part of America the Beautiful Quarters Program. The legislation which authorized the program had stipulated that the Secretary of the Treasury must select the complete register of sites with 270 days of enactment. One site was selected from each state, the District of Columbia, and each US Territory.

The sites will be featured on the reverse design of quarters in the order they were first established as a National Site. Five different designs will be released each year starting in 2010. One design will be released in the final year of the program in 2021.

The five America the Beautiful Quarters to be released in 2010 are the following:

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Yosemite National Park, California
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Mr. Hood National Forest, Oregon

The obverse of the coin will feature a portrait of George Washington. This will be a restored version of the portrait used on the Washington quarter first released in 1932, "including subtle details and the beauty of the original model." The State Quarters and US Territories Quarters had used a redesigned version of the original obverse executed by William Cousins.

On one of my earlier posts about the upcoming quarter series, I had raised the question of what the series would ultimately be called. The authorizing legislation was entitled "America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008." On this basis, the name "National Park Quarters" was being used by most people, although the US Mint seemed to be favoring the more inclusive term "National Sites Quarters."

America the Beautiful Quarters is somewhat lengthy, but covers all of the subjects to be depicted on the quarters from National Parks and Forests to Wildlife Refuges and other sites. I also think this name provides more positive connotations than the other alternatives. It highlights the subjects as places of beauty, rather than the fact that they are sites controlled by a federal entity.

The US Mint has already created subscription programs for the new quarter series. Under the subscription program, the products will be sent to customers as they become available. The programs include Quarter Proof Sets (clad and silver), Two Roll Quarter Sets, 100-coin bags (Philadelphia, Denver, or both), and 1,000-coin bags (Philadelphia, Denver, or both).

Scanning through some of the sites, I came up with a few points of interest. Yellowstone National Park is not listed first, even though it was the world's First National Park. Hot Springs National Park was apparently established as a reserve in 1832, which predates Yellowstone by 40 years. Hot Spring Reservation later became a National Park in 1922.

Some subjects will be repeats of the previous State Quarter designs, such as the Grand Canyon for Arizona and Mount Rushmore for South Dakota. The Statue of Liberty, which had been depicted on the New York Quarter, will be featured on New Jersey's quarter this time around.

Lastly, there will only be one design in the final year of the program featuring the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. This would seem to give the design five times more emphasis than the other designs of the series, provided it is minted and issued for the entire year. I think most people had been believed that six coins would be issued in the final year of the program (as is the case with this year's quarters).

Any other comments about the program or site selection from readers? Please post them in the comments.

The complete schedule for America the Beautiful Quarters Program is listed below.

Year Location Site Federal Entity
2010 Arkansas Hot Springs National Park NPS
2010 Wyoming Yellowstone National Park NPS
2010 California Yosemite National Park NPS
2010 Arizona Grand Canyon National Park NPS
2010 Oregon Mt. Hood National Forest USFS
2011 Pennsylvania Gettysburg National Military Park NPS
2011 Montana Glacier National Park NPS
2011 Washington Olympic National Park NPS
2011 Mississippi Vicksburg National Military Park NPS
2011 Oklahoma Chickasaw National Recreation Area NPS
2012 Puerto Rico El Yunque National Forest USFS
2012 New Mexico Chaco Culture National Historical Park NPS
2012 Maine Acadia National Park NPS
2012 Hawaii Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park NPS
2012 Alaska Denali National Park NPS
2013 New Hampshire White Mountain National Forest USFS
2013 Ohio Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial NPS
2013 Nevada Great Basin National Park NPS
2013 Maryland Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine NPS
2013 South Dakota Mount Rushmore National Memorial NPS
2014 Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains National Park NPS
2014 Virginia Shenandoah National Park NPS
2014 Utah Arches National Park NPS
2014 Colorado Great Sand Dunes National Park NPS
2014 Florida Everglades National Park NPS
2015 Nebraska Homestead National Monument of America NPS
2015 Louisiana Kisatchie National Forest USFS
2015 North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway NPS
2015 Delaware Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge US F&W
2015 New York Saratoga National Historical Park NPS
2016 Illinois Shawnee National Forest USFS
2016 Kentucky Cumberland Gap National Historical Park NPS
2016 West Virginia Harpers Ferry National Historical Park NPS
2016 North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt National Park NPS
2016 South Carolina Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument) NPS
2017 Iowa Effigy Mounds National Monument NPS
2017 District of Columbia Frederick Douglass National Historic Site NPS
2017 Missouri Ozark National Scenic Riverways NPS
2017 New Jersey Ellis Island National Monument (Statue of Liberty) NPS
2017 Indiana George Rogers Clark National Historical Park NPS
2018 Michigan Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore NPS
2018 Wisconsin Apostle Islands National Lakeshore NPS
2018 Minnesota Voyageurs National Park NPS
2018 Georgia Cumberland Island National Seashore NPS
2018 Rhode Island Block Island National Wildlife Refuge US F&W
2019 Massachusetts Lowell National Historical Park NPS
2019 Northern Mariana Islands American Memorial Park NPS
2019 Guam War in the Pacific National Historical Park NPS
2019 Texas San Antonio Missions National Historical Park NPS
2019 Idaho Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness USFS
2020 American Samoa National Park of American Samoa NPS
2020 Connecticut Weir Farm National Historic Site NPS
2020 U.S. Virgin Islands Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve NPS
2020 Vermont Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park NPS
2020 Kansas Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve NPS
2021 Alabama Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site NPS

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