BAKER, Nev. — United States Mint Senior Advisor Ron Harrigal joined Great Basin National Park Superintendent Steve Mietz and former Superintendent Andy Ferguson today to launch the new quarter honoring the site. The coin’s reverse (tails side) design captures the beauty and unique qualities of a single Bristlecone Pine tree and the rocky glacial moraines where the trees grow. The Great Basin National Park quarter is the 18th coin launched by the United States Mint in the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.
With the dramatic backdrop of Wheeler Peak behind him, Harrigal remarked, “There are so many amazing features in this park – mountain peaks, caverns, desert oases, 4,000–year–old trees – it must have been difficult to choose just one for the reverse design of the Great Basin National Park quarter.”
Ashley Carrigan and Justin Brandenburg, representatives for Nevada Senators Dean Heller and Harry Reid, respectively, and Delaine Spilsbury, a member of the Shoshone Tribe, also delivered remarks. After the event, which took place at the Great Basin National Park visitor’s center in Baker, adults exchanged their cash for rolls of new quarters. The evening before the launch ceremony, Harrigal hosted a coin forum to discuss the United States Mint’s coin programs and initiatives.
Great Basin National Park quarters produced for general circulation were released to the Federal Reserve Bank on June 10. The same day, the United States Mint began accepting orders for collectible bags and rolls of coins bearing the Great Basin design at its online catalog, http://www.usmint.gov/catalog, and at 1–800–USA–MINT (872–6468). Coins in these product options were minted at the bureau’s facilities in Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
The United States Mint is administering the America the Beautiful Quarters Program in accordance with Public Law 110–456 (America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008). Each year until 2020, the bureau will issue five new quarters with reverse designs representing the honored national site, with one final coin in 2021. The bureau is issuing the quarters in the order in which the honored sites were first established.
The United States Mint was created by Congress in 1792 and became part of the Department of the Treasury in 1873. It is the Nation’s sole manufacturer of legal tender coinage and is responsible for producing circulating coinage for the Nation to conduct its trade and commerce. The United States Mint also produces numismatic products, including proof, uncirculated, and commemorative coins; Congressional Gold Medals; and silver and gold bullion coins. The United States Mint’s numismatic programs are self–sustaining and operate at no cost to the taxpayer.