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The District of Columbia and United States Territories Quarter Program was a one-year coin program of the United States Mint that saw quarters being minted in 2009 to honor the District of Columbia and the unincorporated United States insular areas of Puerto Rico, Guam, United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The islands commonly grouped together as the United States Minor Outlying Islands were not featured, as the law defined the word "territory" as being limited to the areas mentioned above. It followed the completion of the 50 State Quarters program. The coins used the same George Washington obverse as with the quarters of the previous ten years. The reverse of the quarters featured a design selected by the Mint depicting each territory/federal district. Unlike on the 50 State quarters, the motto "E Pluribus Unum" preceded and was the same size as the mint date on the reverse.
Legislation
Although the statehood program was, by legislation, originally intended to include only the 50 states, legislation (District of Columbia and United States Territories Circulating Quarter Dollar Program Act) was signed into law in late 2007 to include the remaining jurisdictions of the nation. A bill had been introduced five times in the United States Congress to extend the 50 State Quarters program an additional year to include the District of Columbia; the commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands; and the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. During the 106th, 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses, these bills had passed through the House of Representatives, and even had 34 Senate sponsors for the Senate bill during the 108th; however, none of these bills were passed by the Senate. H
On December 10, 2007, Puerto Rico-born Rep. José Serrano, D-NY, attached H.R. 392's language to the Omnibus Spending Bill (H
The 1997 act that authorized the statehood quarter program had originally provided that if the federal district, or any of the territories or commonwealths, became states before 2009, that new state would get a quarter.