The America the Beautifulquarters are a series of 25-cent pieces issued by the United States Mint starting in 2010 and scheduled to continue until 2021. The obverse of all the coins depicts George Washington in a modified version of the portrait used for the original 1932 Washington quarter. There will be five new reverse designs each year, each commemorating 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 DollarCoin Act of 2008.
Coin designs
Quarters will be issued with reverse designs commemorating 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. While they will depict the same sites, they bear new designs.
Mint marks
As of 2019, four mint marks have been used on the America the Beautiful quarters. Quarters produced at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints feature the P and D mint parks respectively. In 2010 and 2011, the San Francisco Mint produced quarters exclusively for the annual Proof Set. In 2012, San Francisco started producing America the Beautiful quarters in the standard circulation finish of the P and D quarters for sale to collectors. On April 2, 2019, the United States Mint announced that the West Point Mint would release 10,000,000 quarters with the "W" mint mark. This was the first time the mint mark appeared on a circulating coin.
Beginning with the El Yunque design in the America the Beautiful Quarters Program, the U.S. Mint began selling 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 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, which sells in the neighborhood of $20 each in an average grade. As of 2019, uncirculated "S" quarters can be obtained from dealers for about three-four times their face value. In 2019 the Mint began to release "W" mintmarked quarters produced at the West Point Mint. Two million of each of the year's five issues, mixed in bags with the common "P" and "D" coins, were scheduled for distribution at various major cities. Intended to increase interest in coin collecting, these products are not available by order from the Mint. 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.
Aftermath
According to the legislation, once the America the Beautiful Quarters Program ends in 2021, the obverse of the quarter will revert to the original Flanagan design used from 1932 until the start of the 50 State Quarter Program. However, the reverse will be redesigned to feature General Washington crossing the Delaware River, the same theme that was used on the 1999 New Jersey quarter. Director of the US Mint David J. Ryder has stated that he has support from Secretary of the TreasurySteven Mnuchin for a 10 year program that struck one commemorative quarter design per year. According to Ryder, the first four quarters released from 2022 to 2025 would feature animals on the reverse. The 2026 quarter would bear a special design for the United States Semiquincentennial. The next four quarters from 2027 to 2030 would feature reverse designs representing youth sports, while the final quarter would reflect either animals or youth sports.
