By Jill Westeyn
April 14, 2017
Rarely a Tuesday morning in Anacostia receives as much attention as it did April 4 when the United States Mint and National Park Service joined together for the ceremonial launch of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site quarter in the southeast quadrant of the Nation’s Capital. The coin is the 37th addition in the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program and the second quarter to be released in 2017. David Motl, Acting Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. Mint and Michael T. Reynolds, Acting Director, National Park Service (NPS), represented their organizations, while Tara D. Morrison, Superintendent, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, served as emcee throughout the ceremony.
The event, held in one of the District of Columbia’s earliest suburbs, was attended by 300 people and 75 area schoolchildren. It followed on the heels of the Mint’s 225th Anniversary on April 2, and a Coin Forum held at Mint Headquarters on April 3—the same day the Federal Reserve released the quarters to the public.
The coin’s reverse design features activist and public figure Frederick Douglass, seated at a writing desk with his home Cedar Hill—the same home where the quarter launch was held.
U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program member and quarter reverse designer Thomas Hipschen was on hand to meet attendees and sign rolls of quarters obtained from the event’s coin exchange. Industrial Bank traded $11,000 of new Frederick Douglass National Historic Site quarters following the ceremony.
View event photos and a production video, as well as attendees’ comments by visiting the Mint’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or by following #DouglassQTR.
The next coin in the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program will be released this June.
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