FRONT ROYAL, Va. — The United States Mint today launched the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program coin honoring Shenandoah National Park in Va.
This is the 22nd coin in the bureau’s America the Beautiful Quarters Program, a multi–year initiative to honor national parks and other national sites. The coin’s reverse (tails) design depicts a day hiker taking in the view from Little Stony Man summit.
The event took place in the auditorium of Front Royal’s Skyline High School. Guest speakers included U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, Shenandoah National Park Superintendent Jim Northup and Molly Ward, Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources.
Mentioning his many ties to Virginia, United States Mint Deputy Director Richard Peterson said: “I am very happy to be in Front Royal, where my father attended Randolph–Macon Academy, to honor a state with such a rich history and promising future, a state my family and I call home. The Shenandoah National Park Quarter emphasizes one of my favorite things about Virginia–its natural beauty–beauty that must be enjoyed and at the same time protected for future generations.”
Following the event, members of the public exchanged their currency for $10 rolls of newly minted Shenandoah National Park quarters. Participants at the event were among the first in the nation to get the new quarter.
The Federal Reserve Bank released millions of general circulating Shenandoah National Park quarters March 31. The same day, the United States Mint opened sales for collectible bags and rolls of Shenandoah National Park quarters from its facilities in Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Orders will be accepted at the bureau’s online catalog at http://www.usmint.gov/catalog and at 1–800–USA–MINT (872–6468). Hearing– and speech–impaired customers with TTY equipment may order by calling 1–888–321–MINT (6468).
The United States Mint is administering the America the Beautiful Quarters Program in accordance with Public Law 110–456, the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008. Each year until 2020, five new quarters will be released with reverse designs representing the honored national sites. The final coin in the program will be released in 2021. The quarters are being issued in the order in which the honored site was established.