3/10/2009

More New Quarters!

So with the end of 2008, the US Mint's 50 State Quarters program is complete. TheGirl is still missing a couple of quarters, but we should find them soon. But did you know what's on tap for 2009 and beyond?

First, it's the DC and US territories program. The DC coin is already out (Viola Zupa showed me one). It doesn't have the slogan asked for by the Mayor of DC ("Taxation without Representation" Go figure. Heh.), but I guess the slogan they used ("Justice for All") could be considered a compromise. Other quarters will be issued for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Brings to mind questions of Statehood, but that's another post.

After 2009, they'll be launching their new Quarter Program: "America's National Parks". There'll be 56 differet quarters issued (that's one for each state and territory, plus DC) , 5 per year, so this'll take us into 2021 or 2022. The selection process is apparently ongoing. According to the
website:

"National sites for consideration include any site under the supervision,
management, or conservancy of the National Park Service, the United States
Forest Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or any similar
department or agency of the Federal government. "

So... I'm guessing that means the Apostle Island National Lakeshore for Wisconsin. Not that exciting, but at least we've got something distinctive! Not every state has Federal Site that is visually interesting enough to put on a coin. I mean, you can only have so many picture of forests and rivers before they all start to blur together. And poor Illinois only has the Lincoln Home National historic site. Another Lincoln coin... yawn. Worse yet, Connecticut has a farm, and Deleware doesn't seem to have anything at all! This should be an "interesting" decade for US Quarters.



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