The 50 State Quarters ® Program was a U.S. Mint series of Quarter Dollar coins that honored each one of the 50 United States in the order in which they joined the Union. The Program began issuing coins in 1999 at the rate of five per year until the entire 50 coins had been released, with the final coin, Hawaii, coming out on November 3, 2008.
The Congressional legislation which enabled the State Quarters Program was called the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act (HR 3793 (PDF)). It was introduced on July 11, 1996 by Rep. Michael Castle (R-Delaware) and signed into law as PL 105-124 (PDF) on December 1, 1997. The U.S. Mint developed an interesting system to determine which designs would be used for each state, which is described in the article about the State Quarter design process.
State Quarters Program - Most Successful in History
The State Quarters Program is easily the most successful coin collecting series in history. The U.S. Mint estimates that 147 million people were collecting State Quarters when the program ended in 2008. The State Quarters Program has not only drawn a great deal of attention to coin collecting in general, it provided the impetus for millions of new collectors to enter the hobby during the span of the program. Coin values for all kinds of coins trended strongly upward during the State Quarter Program years, and the wild success of the Statehood Quarters has opened the door for more programs of a similar nature. For instance, the Presidential Dollar series, which is releasing four coins per year for at least 10 years to honor all of the U.S. presidents, owes its very existence to the success of the State Quarters Program.
State Quarter Values for Singles and Rolls
Although State Quarter mintages are in the hundreds of millions of coins (even more than a billion for several states), with 147 million people collecting them, that only leaves a few coins for each collector before the supply is exhausted. Some of the Quarters are actually quite scarce now, and bring nice premiums as Uncirculated single coins or in full bank-wrapped rolls. If you're wondering how much your Statehood Quarters are worth if you took them to a coin dealer to sell them today, here are two State Quarter price guides:
Future State Quarters Plans
Although the formal 50 State Quarters has ended, in 2009 six more quarters very similar in design to the State Quarters will be issued. These quarters will honor Washington, D.C. and five U.S. Territories . The enabling legislation is HR 2764, which is a huge federal appropriations bill to which this coin-related provision was added. The D.C. and Territories Act has been referred to as an "extension" of the State Quarters Program, but it's actually a separate program entirely.
Beginning in 2010, each U.S. state and territory, plus Washington, D.C. will get another round of quarters, this time featuring a national park or national historic site that is within that state. The National Parks State Quarters program was created by (HR 6184). It will issue quarters at the rate of 5 per year for 11 years, with the option of a second round of quarters following that. This program will also feature the U.S.'s first official 5-ounce .999 fine silver bullion coin.
