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National parks america the beautiful quarters 2010 2015
The America the Beautiful Quarters are a series of 25-cent pieces (quarters) issued by the United States Mint starting in 2010 and scheduled to continue until at least 2021. The series may be extended at the option of the Secretary of the Treasury, potentially to 2032. The obverse (front) of all the coins depicts George Washington in a restored version of the original portrait used for the 1932 Washington quarter. There will be five new reverse (back) designs each year (one in 2021), each depicting a national park or national site – one from each state, the federal district, and each territory. The program is authorized by the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008.
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Quarters will be issued depicting designs of national parks and sites in the order of which that park or site was deemed a national site. The quarters from three different states will depict parks or sites that were previously portrayed on the state quarters (Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yosemite in California, and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota). Though they will depict the same sites, they bear new designs.
Beginning with the El Yunque (Puerto Rico) design in the America the Beautiful Quarters program, the U.S. Mint began selling (at a premium) uncirculated 40-coin rolls and 100-coin bags of quarters with the San Francisco mint mark. These coins were not included in the 2012 uncirculated sets or the three-coin ATB quarter sets (which consisted of an uncirculated "P" and "D" and proof "S" specimen) and no "S" mint-marked quarters are being released into circulation, so that mintages will be determined solely by direct demand for the "S" mint-marked coins. As of January 2013 initial United States Mint sales figures indicated that between 1.3 million and 1.6 million of each 2012 design had been struck at the San Francisco mint, close to the announced mintage of 1.4 million for each design. Direct U.S. Mint sale of rolls and bags of uncirculated business strike coins continued with the 2013 America the Beautiful quarter issues, with actual quantities again to be determined by customer orders. The mintages of the uncirculated "S" quarters are considerably lower than that of the "P" and "D" mint-marked coins, and are comparable to the 1996-w Roosevelt Dime (also not issued for circulation), which sells in the neighborhood of $20 each in an average grade.
Also notable are the 2010 satin finish quarters issued only in 2010 mint sets with a low mintage of 583,897, and proof and silver proof issues, some with mintages almost as low as the 2010 satin finish quarters.
There are collector versions of the America the Beautiful 5 ounce Silver Bullion Coin Program which debuted in December 10, 2010. They feature an uncirculated finish and contain a ‘P’ mintmark indicating they were struck at the US Mint’s facility in Philadelphia. The bullion coins were also struck in Philadelphia but contain no mintmark. The United States Mint struck these coins late in 2010 with an extremely limited mintage of only 27,000. The Mint apparently had insufficient time to strike more before the end of the year owing to initial production difficulties with both America the Beautiful Five Ounce Coin series. This forced the Mint to only release these Hot Springs Coins the following year on April 28, 2011. Demand was intense in the first hours of availability with collectors ordering 19,000 of them in the first nine hours. Within two weeks, the Mint indicated a sell-out of the limited mintage strikes. Each coin's price is determined by the current value of silver and the 2010 issues sold for $279.95. Many subsequent issues have even lower mintages and higher secondary market values. These 5 oz. silver quarters are the "Big Boys'" quarter collection and due to their low mintage, have increased their value over issue price, even in the face of declining silver prices.