50 State Quarters

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Obverse of redesigned quarter

The 50 State Quarters program is the release of a series of commemorative coins by the United States Mint. Between 1999 and 2008, it is intended to feature each of the 50 individual U.S. states on unique designs for the reverse of the quarter.

1 The state quarter program
2 Quarter details
3 Year map
4 Collectible value
5 Seigniorage
6 Design issues and trivia
- 6.1 Series
- 6.2 Individual state designs
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] The state quarter program

During the program, a new statehood quarter is released by the United States Mint every "quintile," or 1/5th of a year (73 days); five designs are released each year. Each quarter's reverse celebrates one of the 50 states with a design honoring its unique history, traditions and symbols, usually designed by a resident of that state and chosen by the state government.

The quarters are released in the same order that the states joined the Union. The obverse of each quarter is a slight redesign of the previous design of the quarter.

The statehood quarters program has become one of the most popular commemorative coin programs in United States history; the United States Mint has estimated that over one hundred million individuals have collected state quarters, either formally or informally.

Although the statehood program is, by legislation, intended to include only the 50 states, legislation has been introduced four times in Congress to extend the program an additional year to include the District of Columbia, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa. During the 106th, 107th, 108th, and 109th Congresses, these bills had passed through the House of Representatives, and even had 34 Senate sponsors for the Senate bill during the 108th; however, none of these bills were passed by the Senate. H.R. 3885, the version in the 109th Congress, passed the House by voice vote in the early hours of December 9, 2006, just before it adjourned sine die; but the Senate adjourned sine die shortly thereafter without considering the bill. [1]

However, the 1997 act that authorized the statehood quarter program provided that if the federal district, or any of the territories or commonwealths, became states before 2009, that new state would get a quarter.

[edit] Quarter details

State	Release Date (Statehood Date)	Mintage Figures	Elements Depicted
Delaware	January 1, 1999 (December 7, 1787)	774,824,000	Caesar Rodney on horseback Captions: "The First State," "Caesar Rodney"
Pennsylvania	March 8, 1999 (December 12, 1787)	707,332,000	"Commonwealth" statue, state outline, keystone Caption: "Virtue, Liberty, Independence"
New Jersey	May 17, 1999 (December 18, 1787)	662,228,000	"Washington Crossing the Delaware" Caption: "Crossroads of the Revolution."
Georgia	July 19, 1999 (January 2, 1788)	939,932,000	Peach, Live oak sprigs, state outline Banner with text: "Wisdom, Justice, Moderation"
Connecticut	October 12, 1999 (January 9, 1788)	1,346,624,000	Charter Oak Caption: "The Charter Oak"
Massachusetts	January 3, 2000 (February 6, 1788)	1,163,784,000	"The Minuteman" statue, state outline Caption: "The Bay State"
Maryland	March 13, 2000 (April 28, 1788)	1,234,732,000	Dome of the Maryland state house, White oak clusters Caption: "The Old Line State"
South Carolina	May 22, 2000 (May 23, 1788)	1,308,784,000	Palmetto tree, Carolina Wren, Yellow Jessamine, state outline Caption: "The Palmetto State"
New Hampshire	August 7, 2000 (June 21, 1788)	1,169,016,000	"The Old Man of the Mountain," nine stars Captions: "Old Man of the Mountain," "Live Free or Die"
Virginia	October 16, 2000 (June 25, 1788)	1,594,616,000	Ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery Captions: "Jamestown, 1607-2007," "Quadricentennial"
New York	January 2, 2001 (July 26, 1788)	1,275,040,000	Statue of Liberty, eleven stars, state outline with line tracing Hudson River and Erie Canal Caption: "Gateway to Freedom"
North Carolina	March 12, 2001 (November 21, 1789)	1,055,476,000	Wright Flyer, Wilbur and Orville Wright Caption: "First Flight"
Rhode Island	May 21, 2001 (May 29, 1790)	870,100,000	Vintage sailboat in Narragansett Bay, Pell Bridge Caption: "The Ocean State"
Vermont	August 6, 2001 (March 4, 1791)	882,804,000	Maple trees with sap buckets, Camel's Hump Mountain Caption: "Freedom and Unity"
Kentucky	October 15, 2001 (June 1, 1792)	723,564,000	Thoroughbred racehorse behind fence, Federal Hill mansion Caption: "My Old Kentucky Home"
Tennessee	January 2, 2002 (June 1, 1796)	648,068,000	Fiddle, trumpet, guitar, musical score, three stars Banner with text: "Musical Heritage."
Ohio	March 18, 2002 (March 1, 1803)	632,032,000	Wright Flyer, spacesuit, state outline Caption: "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers"
Louisiana	May 30, 2002 (April 30, 1812)	764,204,000	Pelican; trumpet with musical notes, outline of Louisiana Purchase on map of U.S. Caption: "Louisiana Purchase"
Indiana	August 2, 2002 (December 11, 1816)	689,800,000	IndyCar, state outline, 19 stars Caption: "Crossroads of America"
Mississippi	October 15, 2002 (December 10, 1817)	579,600,000	Two magnolia blossoms Caption: "The Magnolia State"
Illinois	January 2, 2003 (December 3, 1818)	463,200,000	Young Abraham Lincoln; farm scene; Chicago skyline; state outline; 21 stars, 11 on left edge and 10 on right Captions: "Land of Lincoln;" "21st state/century."
Alabama	March 17, 2003 (December 14, 1819)	457,400,000	Helen Keller, seated, longleaf pine branch, Magnolia blossoms Banner with text: "Spirit of Courage" Caption: "Helen Keller" in standard print and Braille.
Maine	June 2, 2003 (March 15, 1820)	448,800,000	Pemaquid Point Lighthouse; schooner at sea
Missouri	August 4, 2003 (August 10, 1821)	453,200,000	Gateway Arch, Lewis and Clark returning down Missouri River Caption: "Corps of Discovery 1804-2004."
Arkansas	October 20, 2003 (June 15, 1836)	457,800,000	Diamond, rice stalks, mallard duck flying above a lake
Michigan	January 26, 2004 (January 26, 1837)	459,600,000	State outline, outline of Great Lakes system Caption: "Great Lakes State"
Florida	March 29, 2004 (March 3, 1845)	481,800,000	Spanish galleon, Sabal palm trees, Space Shuttle Caption: "Gateway to Discovery"
Texas	June 1, 2004 (December 29, 1845)	541,800,000	State outline, star, rope Caption: "The Lone Star State"
Iowa	August 30, 2004 (December 28, 1846)	465,200,000	Schoolhouse, teacher and students planting a tree, Captions: "Foundation in Education", "Grant Wood"
Wisconsin	October 25, 2004 (May 29, 1848)	453,200,000	Head of a cow, round of cheese and ear of corn. Banner with text: "Forward"
California	January 31, 2005 (September 9, 1850)	520,400,000	John Muir, California Condor, Half Dome, and Giant Sequoia Captions: "John Muir," "Yosemite Valley"
Minnesota	April 4, 2005 (May 11, 1858)	488,000,000	Common loon, Fishing, state map Caption: "Land of 10,000 Lakes"
Oregon	June 6, 2005 (February 14, 1859)	720,200,000	Crater Lake National Park Caption: "Crater Lake"
Kansas	August 29, 2005 (January 29, 1861)	563,400,000	American Bison, Sunflowers
West Virginia	14 October 2005 (June 20, 1863)	721,600,000	New River Gorge Bridge Caption: "New River Gorge"
Nevada	January 31, 2006 (October 31, 1864)	589,800,000	Mustangs, mountains, rising sun, Sagebrush Banner with text: "The Silver State"
Nebraska	April 3, 2006 (March 1, 1867)	591,000,000	Chimney Rock, covered wagon Caption: "Chimney Rock"
Colorado	June 14, 2006 (August 1, 1876)	569,000,000	Longs Peak Banner with text: "Colorful Colorado"
North Dakota	August 28, 2006 (November 2, 1889)	664,800,000	Bison, badlands
South Dakota	November 6, 2006 (November 2, 1889)	TBA	Mount Rushmore, Ring-necked Pheasant, Wheat
Montana	2007 (November 8, 1889)		Bison skull in the center with mountains in the background.
Washington	2007 (November 11, 1889)		Salmon leaping in front of Mount Rainier [2]
Idaho	2007 (July 3, 1890)		Peregrine falcon, state outline Caption: "Esto Perpetua"
Wyoming	2007 (July 10, 1890)		Outline of a bucking bronco, Caption: "The Equality State"
Utah	2007 (January 4, 1896)		Golden Spike and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
Oklahoma	2008 (November 16, 1907)
New Mexico	2008 (January 6, 1912)
Arizona	2008 (February 14, 1912)
Alaska	2008 (January 3, 1959)
Hawaii	2008 (August 21, 1959)

Quarter-dollar coin images from the United States Mint.

[edit] Year map

**The following map shows the years each state is released as a State Quarter.**

**The following table has states grouped by year.**
Year	1^st State	2^nd State	3^rd State	4^th State	5^th State
1999	Delaware	Pennsylvania	New Jersey	Georgia	Connecticut
2000	Massachusetts	Maryland	South Carolina	New Hampshire	Virginia
2001	New York	North Carolina	Rhode Island	Vermont	Kentucky
2002	Tennessee	Ohio	Louisiana	Indiana	Mississippi
2003	Illinois	Alabama	Maine	Missouri	Arkansas
2004	Michigan	Florida	Texas	Iowa	Wisconsin
2005	California	Minnesota	Oregon	Kansas	West Virginia
2006	Nevada	Nebraska	Colorado	North Dakota	South Dakota
2007	Montana	Washington	Idaho	Wyoming	Utah
2008	Oklahoma	New Mexico	Arizona	Alaska	Hawaii

[edit] Collectible value

The U.S. Mint designed the state quarters series, not as a potentially valuable collectible, but as a way of spurring interest in U.S. coinage - which had seen relatively few changes in design in the past 50 years - and in U.S. history. While mintage totals of the various designs vary widely – Virginia quarters are almost four times more abundant than Maine issues — none of the regular circulating issues are rare enough to become valuable investments.

There was, however, a measure of collector interest and controversy over die errors in the Wisconsin quarter. Some designs feature corn without a smaller leaf, others feature a small leaf pointing upwards, and still others have the leaf bending down. [3] A set of all three quarters from the Philadelphia mint sold on eBay in February 2005 for $300.

No other variations on any other state quarter issues have been noted as of 2005.

The 1999 silver proof coinage set is valuable, being the first year of the series and with a relatively small mintage. Obviously it will not be found in circulation and has to be privately purchased. (The set in base metal is worth only a fraction as much.)

[edit] Seigniorage

Seigniorage is the profit gained by a government when it issues currency. The U.S. government discovered at the launch of the State Quarters series that a large number of people were collecting each new quarter as it rolled out of the U.S. Mint, taking the pieces out of circulation. Since it costs the Mint less than five cents for each 25-cent piece it produces, the government made a profit whenever someone "bought" a coin and chose not to spend it. The U.S. Treasury estimates that it has earned about $5 billion in seigniorage revenue from the quarters so far. (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/62xx/doc6271/hr902.pdf page 5) (April 2005).

[edit] Design issues and trivia

[edit] Series

On May 4, 2005, The Onion ran a satirical news story titled "U.S. Mint Gears Up To Issue Commemorative County Pennies" [4].

Occasionally, the Late Night with Conan O'Brien television show will air a segment about fictional satrical designs for new state quarters.

Several quarters have stars as part of their design. On the designs for New Hampshire, New York, Indiana, and Illinois, the stars represent the order in which the state ratified the Constitution. For example, New Hampshire has nine stars, as it is the ninth state. The three stars in the background of Tennessee's design symbolize the three grand divisions of the state; East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee, and not the state's entry number (as Tennessee was the sixteenth state to be admitted to the Union). Texas has a star representing its title as the Lone Star State.

[edit] Individual state designs

Alabama. The Alabama state quarter is the first coin circulated in the U.S. that features Braille writing. It also is the first coin circulated in the U.S. featuring a member of the Socialist Party.

Connecticut. The Charter Oak on the back of the Connecticut quarter fell during a storm on August 21, 1856. When Connecticut's Charter Oak quarter was initially released, it was theorized that its weight was slightly less than the norm for all other quarters, resulting in innumerable vending machine hassles^{[citation needed]}

Georgia. Shortly after the Georgia quarter was released, there was an article in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press about an apparent mistake in the quarter.^{[citation needed]} The outline of the state of Georgia on the quarter appears to have accidentally left out Dade County, which is the county in the extreme northwestern part of the state.

Indiana. The Indiana quarter -- having a problem similar to Georgia's quarter -- is missing part of its northwestern corner. Lake County is either partially or completely missing (where it borders with Lake Michigan). The error did not garner considerable notice.

Iowa. When Iowans were debating the design for its state quarter in 2002, there was a grassroots effort to use a design featuring the Sullivan brothers (to honor the five Waterloo siblings who died when the ship they were aboard — the USS Juneau (CL-52) — sank during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942). The effort was ultimately unsuccessful, and a Grant Wood design was used, but not before some copyright issues were resolved. [5] [6]

Missouri. A design contest winner for the Missouri quarter, Paul Jackson, has claimed that the Mint engraver's interpretation of the design was "dumbed down". The Mint stated that Jackson's design was not coinable, but a private mint later demonstrated that it was. It emerged that Mint engravers hold a monopoly on the design of U.S. coinage, and the term "design contest" was dropped from solicitations for ideas for later state quarters. [7] (PDF) 50-State Quarters: Credit Where Credit Is Due

Nebraska. One of the final concepts for the Nebraska quarter was based on the Ponca leader Standing Bear, who, in a suit brought against the federal government, successfully argued that Native Americans were citizens entitled to rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Nevada. The Nevada quarter's theme is "Morning in Nevada," and the artist described the scene as depicting the sun rising behind the Sierra Nevada mountains. However, the Sierra Nevada mountains form most of the western border of northern Nevada, and to the south lie entirely east of the state—the only place one can watch a sun rise over the Sierras is in California. But the mountains depicted could easily be any one of dozens of mountain ridges in the Basin and Range region that covers most of the state. The quarter depicts wild horses, an invasive species that was nonexistent in Nevada at the time of European colonization, and the sagebrush bears the flowers of a different species of plant.

New Hampshire. The Old Man of the Mountain, featured on the back of the New Hampshire quarter, collapsed in 2003.

North Carolina and Ohio. It was pointed out that the original design and the final actual coin of the Ohio quarter differed; the inscription "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers" read simply "Birthplace of Aviation" on the original submitted design. The North Carolina quarter states "First Flight" although state license plates state "First in Flight". This change for the quarter is rumored to be due to conflicts with Ohio over the first flight. Ohio claims that since the Wright brothers were born in Ohio (even though Wilbur was born in Indiana), then Ohio is truly first in flight and North Carolina simply had the first flight. No doubt this conflict led to the change in Ohio's statement on their quarter as mentioned above.^{[citation needed]}

South Dakota. Although South Dakota has the second highest proportion of American Indians of any state, the South Dakota quarter features three items that are the result of European settlement. These symbols are Mount Rushmore, which is carved into the Black Hills which are seen as sacred by the Lakota, a pheasant, an exotic species, and wheat, which has replaced tens of thousands of square miles of diverse grasslands.

Tennessee. There has also been some controversy over the Tennessee quarter. Some sources claim that the details on the instruments depicted on the quarter are inaccurate, such as the number of strings on the guitar and the location of the tubing on the trumpet. Also, one of the final concepts for the Tennessee quarter was based on the Native American leader Sequoyah, who created the Cherokee alphabet.^{[citation needed]}

West Virginia. During the submission process for the design of the West Virginia quarter, there was an apparent movement to put the famous Mothman on the final design.^{[citation needed]}

Wisconsin. A number of the Wisconsin quarters featured a small misprint: the ear of corn features an extra leaf. Some of the affected coins feature a "low leaf", others feature a "high leaf". All of these "error coins" were minted at the Denver mint. It is unclear whether the error was deliberate or accidental, but the error has sparked a collector frenzy. Sets of the flawed coins have been sold on eBay for up to $2800. [8][9]

[edit] References

[10] "Quarter design will not be put up for a vote," Quad City Times, July 20, 2002 (accessed May 16, 2006).
[11] "Grant Wood dominates field," Quad City Times, August 23, 2002 (accessed May 16, 2006).