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Statehood Quarter Sets

50 State Quarters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 50 State Quarters program is the release of a series of commemorative coins by the United States Mint. Between 1999 and 2008, it is intended to feature each of the 50 individual U.S. states on unique designs for the reverse of the quarter.
Collectible value
The U.S. Mint designed the state quarters series, not as a potentially valuable collectible, but as a way of spurring interest in U.S. coinage - which had seen relatively few changes in design in the past 50 years - and in U.S. history. While mintage totals of the various designs vary widely – Virginia quarters are almost four times more abundant than Maine issues — none of the regular circulating issues are rare enough to become valuable investments.

There was, however, a measure of collector interest and controversy over die errors in the Wisconsin quarter. Some designs feature corn without a smaller leaf, others feature a small leaf pointing upwards, and still others have the leaf bending down. [3] A set of all three quarters from the Philadelphia mint sold on eBay in February 2005 for $300.

No other variations on any other state quarter issues have been noted as of 2005.

The 1999 silver proof coinage set is valuable, being the first year of the series and with a relatively small mintage. Obviously it will not be found in circulation and has to be privately purchased. (The set in base metal is worth only a fraction as much.)

Interesting Facts about some of the State Quarters:

   Alabama:  The Alabama state quarter is the first coin circulated in the U.S. that features Braille writing.

   Georgia:  Shortly after the Georgia quarter was released, there was an article in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press about an apparent mistake in the quarter. The outline of the state of Georgia on the quarter appears to have accidentally left out Dade County, which is the county in the extreme northwestern part of the state.

   Tennessee:  There has also been some controversy over the Tennessee quarter. Some sources claim that the details on the instruments depicted on the quarter are inaccurate, such as the number of strings on the guitar and the location of the tubing on the trumpet. Also, one of the final concepts for the Tennessee quarter was based on the Native American leader Sequoyah, who created the Cherokee alphabet.
 

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