National Park Quarters Program

[U.S. Mint]

After some confusion over the release order for the new National Park Quarters Program, the Mint has announced the following quarters will be released this year:

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

Part of the review process requires that the U.S. Mint provide quarter designs to the Citizen’s Coinage Advisory Committee and the United States Commission of Fine Arts before they are given to the Secretary of the Treasury who is responsible for making the final selection as per America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, which authorized the coins.

National Park Quarters Program

Image from usmint.gov

Hot Springs National Park

The Hot Springs National Park Quarter is the first of 2010 and the first overall in the American the Beautiful Quarters Program.

On April 20th, U.S. Mint Director, Ed Moy, launched the quarter-dollar coin in a special ceremony honoring the 178th anniversary of its establishment as a Federally protected national site.

The Hot Springs National Park, destination of the Dunbar-Hunter Expedition sent by President Thomas Jefferson in 1804, features prehistoric American Indian quarries. A bustling town grew up around the hot springs to provide health services. Hot Springs was first established as a national site on April 20, 1832 to conserve the water from the 47 springs that emerge from Hot Springs Mountain and to ensure that water was made available for drinking and therapy.

The quarter’s reverse (tails side) image depicts the façade of the Hot Springs National Park headquarters building with a fountain in the foreground. The headquarters was built in the Spanish colonial revival style and completed in 1936. The National Park Service emblem is featured to the right of the door. Inscriptions are HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS, 2010 and E PLURIBUS UNUMN. Design candidates were developed in consultation with representatives of Hot Springs National Park.

On April 13th the U.S. Mint unveiled several new lesson plans based on the new Quarters Program. Created and reviewed by teachers to meet national curricular standards, the plans draw on the new quarter reverse designs to inspire students to learn about the culture, geography, and unique heritage and natural beauty of our national parks and sites.

For more information about educational resources, visit The United States Mint web site.

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