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State Quarters
Home » Coin Collecting » Popular Coins » State QuartersIn 1999, the United States Mint launched the immensely popular State Quarters program. While the front of the quarter contains the traditional George Washington profile, the reverse of a state quarter features a design honoring one of the fifty states.
During this program, the mint no longer mints the traditional quarter dollar, and instead offers five new quarter designs (each of which commemorates a different state) each year. A new design appears approximately every ten weeks, but after the year in which it appears, no design is re-minted. The states are honored in the order in which they entered the union, and thus, the Delaware quarter appeared first in 1999, eventually followed by the remaining twelve original colonies. Alaska and Hawaii quarters will complete the program in 2008.
Each state selects its own design, and in most cases, a state’s governor solicits design suggestions from state residents. Some states’ designs focus on historical events (North Carolina and Ohio’s quarters, for example, both refer to the Wright Brothers) while other states depict natural themes (e.g. Arkansas—a diamond, duck, forest, and agriculture; Vermont—a maple sap harvester). Many states also display the state’s motto (e.g. New Hampshire’s famous “Live Free or Die”).
These quarters are worth the same amount as regular quarters, but they are especially fun and educational. More than 130 million Americans collect state quarters, and many stores offer display cases to which you can add one quarter at a time until you complete the set.
Related Popular Coins Articles
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- Wheat Pennies
- State Quarters
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- Eisenhower Dollars
- Mercury Dimes
- Morgan Dollars
- Proof Sets