Over the weekend, Mike Zielinski of the Mint News Blog posted a slide show of the candidates for the America the Beautiful Quarters program. Starting in 2010, the US Mint will release five quarters per year until 2020 and one quarter in 2021 honoring one National Park or National Historic Site in the 50 states, District of Columbia, and five insular territories.

The first five quarters for 2010 will be as follows:

• Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas
• Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming
• Yosemite National Park in California
• Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona
• Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon

Mike put together a slide show of the design candidates.


The first thing I notices is that the image of the proposed obverse of the new quarters show a better executed design. George Washington’s hair looks less spaghetti-like and the features are stronger. While I would have preferred to see Teddy Roosevelt on the obverse of this quarter, a better image of our first president is a good consolation.

In looking at the designs, there seems to be an effort by the Mint to come up with meaningful designs than the State Quarters. I am sure that they will not be coming up with dead skulls and cuds for designs.

Regardless of the designs, I continue to not be excited about these quarters.

Labels: coin design, coins, national park quarters