Many Americans grew up with one standard design on the quarter, featuring George Washington’s dignified profile on one side of the coin and a stately eagle on the reverse.
In 1975-1976, bicentennial quarters, minted to mark the 200th anniversary of U.S. independence, drummed up some interest but featured only one new design. Then, beginning in 1999, the U.S. Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program brought change to our change.
Now, quarters offer up images of flora, fauna, famous landmarks, musical instruments, race cars and even cheese. (Wisconsin, we’re looking at you with that one.)
The state quarters were released in sets of five per year for 10 years, with states lined up according to the order in which they joined the Union. It was a long wait for Hawaii and Alaska, in other words.
But that wasn’t all.
Coins for the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories were issued in 2009. And in 2010, the U.S. Mint began a new 56-coin series honoring America’s national parks and other national sites. The America the Beautiful Quarters Program will continue to issue new coins in 2020 and 2021.
Meanwhile, here’s a look at the 50 nifty quarters that started it all, in the order of their release.
1. Delaware
Coin released: 1999
Unique coin inscription: The First State
The Delaware quarter depicts Caesar Rodney’s historic 18-hour midnight horseback ride in 1776. This lesser-known Founding Father rode 80 miles to Philadelphia to cast Delaware’s tie-breaking vote in favor of the 13 Colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain.
2. Pennsylvania
Coin released: 1999
Unique coin inscription: Virtue Liberty Independence
Pennsylvania’s quarter features the “Commonwealth” statue that tops its State Capitol, plus the state’s outline and motto.
The vase-like shape on the state image is a keystone, an architectural term for a wedge-like stone used in arches to hold all the other arch stones in place. It honors Pennsylvania’s “Keystone State” nickname.
3. New Jersey
Coin released: 1999
Unique coin inscription: Crossroads of the Revolution
Big action is happening on the New Jersey quarter, which features then-Gen. George Washington and his soldiers famously crossing the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776, before the Battle of Trenton. That surprise attack helped Washington and the Continental Army win the first major military victory of the Revolutionary War.
4. Georgia
Coin released: 1999
Unique coin inscription: Wisdom Justice Moderation
Georgia is known as the Peach State, and that fruit appears on the state quarter, along with an outline of the state, its motto and live oak sprigs. (The Southern live oak is Georgia’s state tree.)
Fun fact: The state outline excludes Dade County, Georgia’s northwestern-most county, which supposedly became frustrated with the slow pace of the South’s secession and attempted to secede on its own from the Union — and the state. Historians have debunked that legend, though.
5. Connecticut
Coin released: 1999
Unique coin inscription: The Charter Oak
Connecticut’s quarter really branches out, featuring an image of the state’s famed Charter Oak tree, which fell during a storm in 1856.
The huge white oak tree became famous as the hiding place of the Connecticut Charter of 1662, protecting it from a British governor who tried to seize it by force in 1687 and making the tree a famous landmark.
6. Massachusetts
Coin released: 2000
Unique coin inscription: The Bay State
A Colonial minuteman, one of the famed ready-in-a-minute civilian soldiers of the American Revolution, forever stands guard on the Massachusetts quarter.
The coin also features the state’s outline and nickname.
7. Maryland
Coin released: 2000
Unique coin inscription: The Old Line State
The dome of Maryland’s elegant State House dominates its quarter, surrounded by leaf clusters from the official state tree, the white oak.
No metal nails were used in the dome’s construction, the State House site notes, and to this day it is held together with wooden pegs reinforced by iron straps forged in Annapolis.
8. South Carolina
Coin released: 2000
Unique coin inscription: The Palmetto State
Three of South Carolina’s state symbols decorate its quarter: the palmetto tree, the Carolina wren and the yellow jessamine flower.
A star on the state outline marks the location of the state capital, Columbia.
9. New Hampshire
Coin released: 2000
Unique coin inscription: Live Free or Die/ The Old Man of the Mountain
The New Hampshire quarter now serves as a memorial to a state landmark that is no more.
It depicts the famed Old Man of the Mountain, a series of mountain ledges that appeared to create the profile of a face. The rocky landmark in the Franconia Notch pass of the White Mountains crumbled one night in 2003.
10. Virginia
Coin released: 2000
Unique coin inscription: Jamestown 1607-2007 Quadricentennial
Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, the three ships that brought the first English settlers to the Jamestown settlement, sail forth on the Virginia quarter.
Their 1607 arrival led to the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, in what was to become the state of Virginia.
11. New York
Coin released: 2001
Unique coin inscription: Gateway to Freedom
The Statue of Liberty lifts her lamp against an outline of New York state on the New York quarter.
Look closely at the image of the state. The line running through it indicates the important shipping corridor created in the 1800s by construction of the Erie Canal, which was vital to the state’s growth and development. The 363-mile east-west canal linked Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany on the Hudson River, from which point river traffic flowed southward to the Upper New York Bay between New York City and Jersey City.
12. North Carolina
Coin released: 2001
Unique coin inscription: First Flight
That plane on the North Carolina quarter, the Wright Flyer, looks awfully rickety by today’s standards.
But in 1903, brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright managed to keep it in the air for a whopping 12 seconds, landing in the soft sand of Kill Devil Hills beach, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Thus began the era of air travel.
13. Rhode Island
Coin released: 2001
Unique coin inscription: The Ocean State
Tiny Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island, as the joke goes. But it boasts more than 400 miles of coastline.
Its quarter depicts a vintage sailboat on Narragansett Bay. The Claiborne Pell Bridge is in the background.
14. Vermont
Coin released: 2001
Unique coin inscription: Freedom and Unity
Vermont is the nation’s leading producer of maple syrup, and its quarter shows maple trees being tapped for the tasty treat. Camel’s Hump Mountain, a peak in the Green Mountains that is the state’s third-highest, is shown in the background.
15. Kentucky
Coin released: 2001
Unique coin inscription: “My Old Kentucky Home”
Kentucky’s quarter depicts a thoroughbred racehorse, in honor of the state’s famed Kentucky Derby.
The building behind it is the historic Federal Hill Mansion, the Bardstown residence completed in 1818 about which composer Stephen Foster wrote “My Old Kentucky Home,” which became the state song.
16. Tennessee
Coin released: 2002
Unique coin inscription: Musical Heritage
The Tennessee quarter hits the right notes with music fans, depicting a fiddle, guitar and trumpet.
Each instrument honors a different region and strand of the state’s musical history, with the fiddle for the bluegrass music of eastern Tennessee, the guitar for the country music of Nashville and central Tennessee and the trumpet for the blues of Memphis and western Tennessee.
17. Ohio
Coin released: 2002
Unique coin inscription: Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers
Two very different symbols decorate the Ohio quarter. The biplane honors its “aviation pioneers,” the Ohio-raised Wright brothers, and the astronaut symbolizes space pioneers Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, also Ohio natives.
18. Louisiana
Coin released: 2002
Unique coin inscription: Louisiana Purchase
Louisiana’s quarter crams a lot of symbolism onto one coin.
The pelican is the state bird, the trumpet stands for New Orleans’ jazz history and the outline of the 828,000-square-mile area of land known as the Louisiana Purchase is also shown.
19. Indiana
Coin released: 2002
Unique coin inscription: Crossroads of America
Nineteen stars dot Indiana’s quarter, marking its place as the 19th state.
But more prominent on the coin is a racecar, honoring the famed Indianapolis 500, the world’s oldest currently operational automobile race held each year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.
20. Mississippi
Coin released: 2002
Unique coin inscription: The Magnolia State
Mississippi’s quarter displays flowering magnolia plants. The state honors the magnolia blossom as its state flower and the magnolia tree as its state tree.
21. Illinois
Coin released: 2003
Unique coin inscription: Land of Lincoln, 21st State — Century
President Abraham Lincoln was actually born in Kentucky, but he moved to Illinois as a young adult, so it’s no surprise he appears on the Illinois state quarter. A farm sits behind him and the Chicago skyline rises before him, and he’s setting down a farm tool while holding a law book.
Twenty-one stars surround the symbols for the 21st state on the 21st quarter issued in the 50 State Quarters Program as the nation entered the 21st century.
22. Alabama
Coin released: 2003
Unique coin inscription: Helen Keller, Spirit of Courage
Alabama-born Helen Keller was deaf and blind, and overcame great odds to succeed as an author and lecturer.
She’s shown on the state quarter reading a book in Braille, and her name appears in both English and Braille. Magnolias and a longleaf pine branch, honoring the state tree, decorate the coin’s sides.
23. Maine
Coin released: 2003
Unique coin inscription: None
Maine’s historic Pemaquid Point Light is featured on its state quarter, standing atop a granite coast.
Sailing past the lighthouse is a three-masted schooner resembling the Victory Chimes. The ship is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
24. Missouri
Coin released: 2003
Unique coin inscription: Corps of Discovery, 1804 — 2004
Two hundred years of history meld on the Missouri quarter. The coin shows the famed St. Louis Gateway Arch, completed in 1965, which rises beside the Missouri River.
It also depicts explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whose Corps of Discovery set out to navigate the river in 1804.
25. Arkansas
Coin released: 2003
Unique coin inscription: None
The Arkansas quarter is dominated by a diamond, the state gem. It also features rice stalks, to honor the state grain, and a mallard spreading its wings above a lake — the symbols were selected to illustrate one of the state’s nicknames, “The Natural State.”
26. Michigan
Coin released: 2004
Unique coin inscription: Great Lakes State
Michigan is proud of its position at the heart of this nation’s Great Lakes, one of which shares a name with the state. The state outline and the outlines of all five of the lakes appear on the state quarter.
27. Florida
Coin released: 2004
Unique coin inscription: Gateway to Discovery
Florida’s quarter mixes icons from different eras.
A 16th-century Spanish galleon honors the state’s history, while a space shuttle is a nod to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, from which most U.S. space missions blast off.
28. Texas
Coin released: 2004
Unique coin inscription: The Lone Star State
The Texas quarter features a simple and bold design. A giant star atop the state outline highlights the Lone Star State nickname.
The lariat encircling the design honors the state’s cowboy and cattle history as well as the frontier spirit that tamed the land.
29. Iowa
Coin released: 2004
Unique coin inscription: Foundation in Education, Grant Wood
Iowa’s state quarter is themed Foundation in Education, with a teacher and students planting a tree by their one-room schoolhouse. The design is based on “Arbor Day,” a 1932 painting by Iowa-born Grant Wood.
30. Wisconsin
Coin released: 2004
Unique coin inscription: Forward
Do you find Wisconsin’s state quarter moooooo-ving?
Wisconsin’s state motto, “Forward,” adorns a banner in front of a cow, an ear of corn and a wheel of cheese, symbols selected to honor the state’s agricultural strengths.
31. California
Coin released: 2005
Unique coin inscription: John Muir, Yosemite Valley
Naturalist John Muir, dubbed by some the “Father of the National Park System,” stands in front of the Yosemite Valley’s monolithic granite headwall on California’s quarter.
A California condor, once nearly extinct, soars overhead.
32. Minnesota
Coin released: 2005
Unique coin inscription: Land of 10,000 Lakes
A lakeside scene is fitting for Minnesota’s quarter, as the state is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
The state bird, the loon, calmly glides in front of a fishing boat.
33. Oregon
Coin released: 2005
Unique coin inscription: Crater Lake
Oregon’s quarter depicts the state’s famed Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the nation and seventh-deepest in the world. The lake formed in the crater of a former volcano, Mount Mazama, which exploded and then caved in more than 7,700 years ago.
Also visible is the lake’s Wizard Island, made of volcanic ash.
34. Kansas
Coin released: 2005
Unique coin inscription: None
An American bison, the state animal of Kansas, dominates its state quarter.
A sunflower, the state flower, is also shown.
35. West Virginia
Coin released: 2005
Unique coin inscription: New River Gorge
West Virginia’s state quarter depicts the scenic beauty of the New River and the New River Gorge Bridge, the nation’s second-highest bridge and one of the longest steel spans in the world.
36. Nevada
Coin released: 2006
Unique coin inscription: The Silver State
Wild stallions romp across the Nevada quarter as the sun rises over the mountains. The state flower, the sagebrush, is also shown.
37. Nebraska
Coin released: 2006
Unique coin inscription: Chimney Rock
Nebraska’s pioneer history is honored on its quarter, which shows a pioneer family in an oxen-drawn covered wagon. Chimney Rock, a National Historic site, rising 445 feet, is depicted in the background. The peak served as a landmark for many of the early pioneers who passed through the region on their way toward California.
38. Colorado
Coin released: 2006
Unique coin inscription: Colorful Colorado
Naturally, Colorado’s famed Rocky Mountains decorate its state quarter. That craggy mountain resembles Longs Peak, the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park.
39. North Dakota
Coin released: 2006
Unique coin inscription: None
Two American bison are seen grazing in North Dakota’s famed Badlands on its state quarter.
40. South Dakota
Coin released: 2006
Unique coin inscription: None
South Dakota’s famed Mount Rushmore National Memorial dominates its quarter. Also shown is the state bird, the Chinese ring-necked pheasant.
Wheat stalks circle the design. Wheat is a dominant crop in South Dakota.
41. Montana
Coin released: 2007
Unique coin inscription: Big Sky Country
A striking bison skull, a symbol of the state’s Native American heritage, dominates the Montana state quarter.
The rugged scenery of the state known as “Big Sky Country” is shown in the background.
42. Washington
Coin released: 2007
Unique coin inscription: The Evergreen State
A salmon, a symbol of the state and the Pacific Northwest culture, leaps high on the Washington state quarter.
Towering Mount Rainier in the background is the state’s highest peak, and still is considered an active volcano.
43. Idaho
Coin released: 2007
Unique coin inscription: Esto Perpetua
The peregrine falcon, Idaho’s state raptor (the mountain bluebird is the state bird), is shown on its quarter, along with an outline of the state
The coin also includes the state motto, “Esto perpetua,” Latin for “May it be forever.”
44. Wyoming
Coin released: 2007
Unique coin inscription: The Equality State
The bucking bronco and hat-waving rider on the Wyoming state quarter symbolize its Wild West heritage.
The state’s nickname, “The Equality State,” honors the fact that its constitution, in 1889, included voting rights for women.
45. Utah
Coin released: 2007
Unique coin inscription: Crossroads of the West
Utah’s state quarter honors the 1869 joining of the tracks of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads to create the First Intercontinental Railroad. The two trains face a rendering of the golden spike driven in the ceremony.
The event, at Promontory, in what was then Utah Territory, made it possible for Americans to cross the nation by rail.
46. Oklahoma
Coin released: 2008
Unique coin inscription: None
The Oklahoma state quarter features two of its official symbols. The state bird, the scissor-tailed flycatcher, soars over the state wildflower, the Indian blanket.
47. New Mexico
Coin released: 2008
Unique coin inscription: Land of Enchantment
New Mexico’s quarter is marked with the outline of the state on which a Zia sun symbol indicates the location of Santa Fe, the state capital.
The Zia Pueblo people are among numerous native tribes and communities in New Mexico. The sun symbol also appears on the state flag and license plates.
48. Arizona
Coin released: 2008
Unique coin inscription: Grand Canyon State
Two impressive Arizona symbols appear on its quarter: The famed Grand Canyon shares space with an iconic saguaro cactus, which can grow to over 40 feet tall.
49. Alaska
Coin released: 2008
Unique coin inscription: The Great Land
Alaska’s state quarter reminds people of the wild side of the 49th state, showing a grizzly bear about to enjoy a salmon lunch. A single star next to the name of our northernmost state stands for the North Star.
50. Hawaii
Coin released: 2008
Unique coin inscription: Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka ‘‾Aina I Ka Pono
Hawaii’s quarter honors its history, as King Kamehameha I stretches his hand toward the eight major Hawaiian Islands.
Kamehameha I founded the kingdom of Hawaii by uniting the islands in the early 1800s. The coin’s inscription is the state motto, which commonly translates to, “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.”
Do you collect state quarters? How many do you have? Post a comment below or at Money Talks News’ Facebook page.
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