50 State quarters

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.

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.

Applicability to non-states

Although the statehood program is, by legislation, intended to include only the 50 states, legislation has been introduced five times in the United States Congress to extend the program an additional year to include the District of Columbia, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa. During the 106th, 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th 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. The 110th Congress version of the bill, H.R. 392, was introduced on January 10, 2007 by the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno and was passed by the House of Representatives on January 23, 2007 where it awaits a Senate vote.

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.

Quarter details

State	Release Date (Statehood Date)	Mintage Figures	Design	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" which includes George Washington and James Monroe (holding flag) 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" (the state motto)
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, Bardstown mansion, Federal Hill 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, Astronaut (Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon, is a native of Wapakoneta), 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 8, 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	October 14, 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	Nebraska quarter	Chimney Rock, covered wagon Caption: "Chimney Rock"
Colorado	June 14, 2006 (August 1, 1876)	569,000,000	Colorado quarter	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)	510,800,000	South Dakota quarter	Mount Rushmore, Ring-necked Pheasant, Wheat
Montana	January 29, 2007 (November 8, 1889)	513,240,000	Montana quarter	Bison skull in the center with mountains and the Missouri River in the background. Caption: "Big Sky Country"
Washington	April 11, 2007 (November 11, 1889)	545,200,000	Washington quarter	Salmon leaping in front of Mount Rainier Caption: "The Evergreen State"
Idaho	June 5, 2007[1] (July 3, 1890)	581,400,000	Idaho quarter	Peregrine falcon, state outline Caption: "Esto Perpetua"
Wyoming	September 4, 2007 (July 10, 1890)		Wyoming quarter	Outline of a bucking bronco, Caption: "The Equality State"
Utah	November 5, 2007 (January 4, 1896)			Golden Spike and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad Caption: Crossroads of the West
Oklahoma	2008 (November 16, 1907)			Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, with Indian Blankets (the state wildflower) in background
New Mexico	2008 (January 6, 1912)			State outline, Zia Sun Symbol from flag Caption: "Land of Enchantment"
Arizona	2008 (February 14, 1912)		Arizona quarter	Grand Canyon, Saguaro closeup. Caption: "Grand Canyon State"
Alaska	2008 (January 3, 1959)		Alaska quarter	Grizzly bear with salmon Caption: "The Great Land"
Hawaii	2008 (August 21, 1959)			Statue of Kamehameha with state outline and motto Caption: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono

Quarter-dollar coin images from the United States Mint.

Year map

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

The following table has states grouped by year.

Color	Year	1st State	2nd State	3rd State	4th State	5th 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

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. A set of all three quarters from the Philadelphia mint sold on eBay in February 2005 for $300, and have since seen significant increases.

A 2005 Minnesota double die quarter, as well as a 2005 Minnesota quarter with extra trees (another die error), have both triggered numismatic interest. An unusual die break on some 2005 Kansas quarters created a humpback bison. Relatively more common are Kansas quarters sporting the motto "IN GOD WE RUST".

The 1999 silver proof coinage set is valuable, being the first year of the series and with a relatively small mintage. (The set in base metal is worth only a fraction as much.)

The Franklin Mint altered 40,000 California quarters by putting the comic book superhero the Silver Surfer on the back. This was done to promote the film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

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 $4.6 billion in seigniorage revenue from the quarters so far.

Design issues and trivia

Series

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

• Occasionally, the Late Night with Conan O'Brien television show will air a segment about fictional satirical 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 either ratified the Constitution (New Hampshire and New York) or was admitted as a state (Indiana and Illinois). 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. A common joke among Texans is that the state government asked to have a larger quarter than the other states, but was denied permission by the Mint.

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.

• Colorado: William Eugene Rollins designed the quarter in a contest held in 2005. The quarter shows the landscape of Colorado's nature side with a mountain and some pine trees.

• Connecticut: The Charter Oak on the back of the Connecticut quarter fell during a storm on August 21, 1856. It also appears on a 1936 half dollar commemorating the 300th anniversary of the state's settlement by Europeans.

• Hawaii: The Hawaii quarter features a rendition of the statue of Kamehameha I, who united the Hawaiian Islands in 1810, with the state outline and motto
  Caption: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono, which means "The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness."

• Illinois: The Illinois quarter is the only quarter to directly reference and portray an urban city, with a picture of the Chicago skyline. It is also the first coin to feature George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on the same coin.

• 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, 1942). The effort was ultimately unsuccessful, and a Grant Wood design was used, but not before some copyright issues were resolved.

• Maryland Maryland's design features the Maryland State House. Completed in 1779, it is the oldest state house in the country in continuous use by the legislature. Among other things, this building hosted the US Congress of the Confederation in 1783 and 1784, the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War was ratified by Congress there in 1784, and George Washington resigned his post as commander in chief there in December of 1783. Also, the wooden dome capping the structure was built without nails, the largest one in the nation to have that distinction. The motto, "The Old Line State," refers to a line of 400 continental soldiers from Maryland who fought bravely and steadfastly in the American Revolutionary War. They held off British soldiers under the command of General Clinton on Brooklyn Heights giving other American soldiers in New York City time to escape across the Hudson River. Duly impressed by their service, George Washington bequeathed the honorable motto upon Maryland.

• Minnesota: Many safety groups are pointing out the fact that on the state quarter, the men fishing from the boat are not wearing life jackets.

• 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.

• 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 west 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.

• Oregon: Oregon's design features a scene of Crater Lake and Wizard Island. This design was chosen by the Oregon Commemmorative Quarter Commission. The Quarter Commission was made up of 18 members, including Governor Ted Kulongoski, State Treasurer Randall Edwards, Columbia Sportswear Chairperson Gert Boyle, numismatist Monte Mensing, Beaverton High School student Laura Davis, along with state congresspersons Charles Starr, Joan Dukes, Betsy Johnson, and Betsy Close, among others. The Quarter Commission chose the Crater Lake design from three other finalists: a jumping salmon, the Oregon Trail, and Mt. Hood.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Wyoming: Some Wyoming quarters were released in 2007 with indicia of inadequate quality control. Many persons, upon first seeing the same cowboy outline design used on the state's automobile license plates, have mistakently believed that the lack of detail is itself a flaw, the result of an incomplete striking. However, evidence of cracks in the die and subsequent hasty repairs have been observed in a few circulation specimens.

See also

• United States Mint
• United States Commemorative Coin
• Westward Journey Nickel Series
• Presidential $1 Coin Program
• Quarter (U.S. coin)

External links

• The 50 State Quarters Program of the United States Mint Official Website
• 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act
• State Quarter Designs
• Trade State Quarters
• http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/15/pf/banking/quarter_curse/