Quarter Facts

Some facts about the Mint’s state-themed quarter program:

* The 10-year program involves issuing one redesigned quarter for each state. While the coin front continues to feature George Washington, the back is an image of the issuing state’s design. The designs, which are reviewed by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, generally commemorate either a historic event or something unique to that state.

* Five new quarters are issued each year, one every 10 weeks. The quarters are being issued in the order that states entered the union. Thus, Delaware’s was the first new quarter issued, in 1999; Hawaii’s will be the last.

* The state quarter program is the first change to the quarter since the bicentennial quarter program in 1975 and 1976. Production of the standard eagle quarter will resume in 2009, when the state quarter program ends.

* The Mint generally forges coins to keep pace with demand. Because demand for state quarters has been soaring, the number of quarters issued early in the program were significantly fewer than those minted today. Whereas 662.2 million quarters were minted for New Jersey, the third state in the program, 1.59 billion were minted for Virginia, the 10th state.