America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins

America the Beautiful Quarters took center stage Wednesday when the US Mint announced the new program to an awaiting public. With a ton of fanfare about the list of national parks and sites the new quarters will feature, it was easy to miss the Mint’s same-day introduction of the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins.

But before reviewing these silver coins, an understanding of the new quarter series is important.

America the Beautiful Quarters will feature up to five new designs each year beginning in 2010 and lasting to 2021. The eleven year series will result in 56 circulating quarter-dollar coins with reverse designs emblematic of a selected site in each state, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

"These new quarters will honor some of our most revered, treasured and beautiful national sites — majestic and historic places located throughout the United States and its territories that truly make us ‘America the Beautiful,’" said United States Mint Director Ed Moy.

America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act, which authorized the new series, also mandates that the US Mint strike "exact" silver bullion "duplicates" of each quarter, and thus was born the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin Program.

The American the Beautiful silver coins specifications are not standard by any stretch of the imagination. Each will:

• have a diameter of 3.0 inches;
• weigh 5.0 ounces;
• contain .999 fine silver;
• have incused into the edge the fineness and weight of the bullion coin;
• bear an inscription of the denomination of such coin, which shall be ‘quarter dollar’; and
• not be minted or issued by the United States Mint as so-called ‘fractional’ bullion coins or in any size other than the size described in paragraph

Their diameters will be twice the size of early US silver dollars, like the Morgans, and nearly double that of today’s American Eagle Silver, which is 1.598 inches in diameter and includes one ounce of silver.

For silver coin collectors and investors, this new program looks to have both its pros and cons. The thought of a super-sized US coin can certainly be daunting. Some seasoned numismatists are less than thrilled with the new program. Numismatic News Editor Dave Harper summed up the feeling of many coin collectors in an article entitled New U.S. bullion coins; who cares?

"I think the whole thing makes a joke of American coinage, but then the solons in Congress thought otherwise and tucked the provision into the quarter bill. Will bullion investors flock to it? Why would they do so? The American Eagle is so much more widely traded and recognizable."

On the flip side, the series may open up new avenues for investors and bring the hobby news collector. How will the younger generation feel toward the bullion coins? That is key. Only time will tell.

The silver coins will follow each quarter release. Here is a list and release dates compliments of America the Beautiful Quarters Release Schedule. The National Site Registry list is also available from the US Mint at http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProgram/?action=siteRegister.

America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins Release Schedule

Year	Location	National Park or National Site
2010	Arkansas	Hot Springs National Park
	Wyoming	Yellowstone National Park
	California	Yosemite National Park
	Arizona	Grand Canyon National Park
	Oregon	Mt. Hood National Forest
2011	Pennsylvania	Gettysburg National Military Park
	Montana	Glacier National Park
	Washington	Olympic National Park
	Mississippi	Vicksburg National Military Park
	Oklahoma	Chickasaw National Recreation Area
2012	Puerto Rico	El Yunque National Forest
	New Mexico	Chaco Culture National Historical Park
	Maine	Acadia National Park
	Hawaii	Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park
	Alaska	Denali National Park
2013	New Hampshire	White Mountain National Forest
	Ohio	Perryâs Victory and International Peace Memorial
	Nevada	Great Basin National Park
	Maryland	Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine
	South Dakota	Mount Rushmore National Memorial
2014	Tennessee	Great Smoky Mountains National Park
	Virginia	Shenandoah National Park
	Utah	Arches National Park
	Colorado	Great Sand Dunes National Park
	Florida	Everglades National Park
2015	Nebraska	Homestead National Monument of America
	Louisiana	Kisatchie National Forest
	North Carolina	Blue Ridge Parkway
	Delaware	Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
	New York	Saratoga National Historical Park
2016	Illinois	Shawnee National Forest
	Kentucky	Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
	West Virginia	Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
	North Dakota	Theodore Roosevelt National Park
	South Carolina	Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument)
2017	Iowa	Effigy Mounds National Monument
	District of Columbia	Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
	Missouri	Ozark National Scenic Riverways
	New Jersey	Ellis Island National Monument (Statue of Liberty)
	Indiana	George Rogers Clark National Historical Park
2018	Michigan	Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
	Wisconsin	Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
	Minnesota	Voyageurs National Park
	Georgia	Cumberland Island National Seashore
	Rhode Island	Block Island National Wildlife Refuge
2019	Massachusetts	Lowell National Historical Park
	Northern Mariana Islands	American Memorial Park
	Guam	War in the Pacific National Historical Park
	Texas	San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
	Idaho	Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness
2020	American Samoa	National Park of American Samoa
	Connecticut	Weir Farm National Historic Site
	U.S. Virgin Islands	Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve
	Vermont	Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
	Kansas	Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
2021	Alabama	Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site