Virginia America the Beautiful Quarter

The Virginia America the Beautiful Quarter is scheduled to be released in 2014. The coin will be the twenty second release of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program, which features unique depictions of a National Park or National Site in each state, territory, and the District of Columbia.

The site selected for the quarter is Shenandoah National Park. The park, which receives more than one million visitors per year will be depicted on the reverse of the coin, with a portrait of George Washington on the obverse.

The coins will be issued for circulation, struck by the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. This will allow everyone to enjoy or collect the design from their pocket change. Proof coins will be struck at the San Francisco Mint for collectors in the standard composition and 90% silver composition. These will be sold directly by the US Mint during the year of release.

About Shenandoah National Park

The peaks and ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains are tangible evidence of the way that the Earth’s crust was crinkled and split by molten magma beneath it so many eons ago. Slowly this magma moved towards the surface, cooling and twisting until it became the pristine mountain tops that we gaze upon today. It would be thousands of years until the first European settlers would venture up into these Blue Mountains, looking for animals to hunt and trap, and later for valleys and hollows in which to set up their homesteads.

Today, the beautiful Shenandoah National Park, which was first dedicated in May of 1926, resides only seventy five miles from the bustling urban center that is our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. Shenandoah is living proof of the power of committed citizens who believe in preserving and protecting nature. Many of the trails, structures and learning areas of Shenandoah National Park were build by the Citizen Conservation Corps, who also helped to find new homes for the over four hundred mountain families that had to be relocated when the park was closed to human inhabitants.

Those who visit Shenandoah National Park will be treated to dense forest areas where the canopy of trees is alive with the calls and songs of over 200 species of birds. Hikers can test their stamina against portions of the Appalachian trail that run through the park, and those who enjoy exploring the historical context of these parks can listen to interpretive rangers explain the lifestyles of the earliest inhabitants of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.