National Park Quarters

Five quarters are to be released each year starting in 2010 with Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas and finishing with Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama, appearing in the year 2021. The America the Beautiful Quarters Program could run for an additional 11 years should the Secretary of the Treasury extend the program. If the program is extended there could potentially be 112 total coins honoring America’s national parks.

One national park will be highlighted on a circulating commemorative coin and a silver bullion coin. According to the act, “the national site chosen for each State shall be the most appropriate in terms of natural or historic significance,” and that “it is important that the Nation’s coinage and currency bear dignified designs of which the citizens of the United States can be proud.”

For the purposes of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program, the term “national park” includes all national sites under the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service or U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Under the National Park Service alone there are 391 designations such as National Battlefields, National Military Parks, National Lakeshores, and National Seashores among many others.  Under the U.S. Forest Service there are National Forests, National Grasslands, Natural Preserves and other areas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for the National Wildlife Refuge System that contains over 520 refuges and also thousands of small wetlands.

While the majority of the quarters will be featuring national parks, there will also be reverse designs featuring six of our national forests and two of our national wildlife refuges (Bombay Hook in Delaware and Block Island in Rhode Island). The quarters will be released in the order that the sites became national parks. The first five quarters to be released in the year 2010 are:

• Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
• Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
• Yosemite National Park, California
• Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
• Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon

Many people are under the impression that Yellowstone was the first national park, so it was to some surprise that Hot Springs National Park is the first quarter design scheduled for release. Hot Springs National Park is the oldest site in the national park system because Congress set it aside as a reservation in 1832. However, Yellowstone National Park became the United States’ first national park in 1872.