Grand Canyon National Park Quarter Released

With help from National Park Service officials, the United States Mint
marked the release of the Grand Canyon National Park quarter today in a
ceremony at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Secretary of the Interior Ken
Salazar unveiled the first five “America the Beautiful” quarters in March of this year,
featuring America’s four oldest national parks – Hot Springs, Yellowstone, Yosemite and
Grand Canyon – and Mount Hood National Forest (see story here). Since
then, each quarter has been released in the order in which the honored site was first
established as a national site. Each year, the public will see five new national site
designs depicted on the reverse (tails side) of America the Beautiful
Quarters. Highlights of today’s event included a ceremonial coin pour,
performances by the Pollen Trail Dancers, a local Native American troupe, and a coin
exchange at which members of the public swapped their currency for $10 rolls of the new
quarter. Children 18 years old and younger received a new Grand Canyon National Park
quarter to commemorate the event. The design on the most recently released coin features on
the reverse (tails) a view of the granaries, which were used for storing food and seeds,
above the Nankoweap Delta in Marble Canyon near the Colorado River. Inscriptions on the
reverse are GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA, 2010 and E PLURIBUS UNUM. The design on the coin’s
obverse (heads) features the 1932 portrait of George Washington by John Flanagan, restored
to bring out subtle details and the beauty of the original model. Inscriptions on the
obverse are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and QUARTER DOLLAR. The
Grand Canyon National Park quarter is the fourth coin released through the United States
Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program, a multiyear initiative to honor 56 national
parks and other sites in each state, the District of Columbia and the five U.S.
territories. Mount Hood National Forest Quarter will be the fifth. Each year through 2020,
the United States Mint will issue five new quarters in the order in which the honored site
was first established as a national site. One final coin will be released in 2021. For more
information, call (800) USA-MINT or visit The United States Mint.