This article presents photos of Iowa’s Effigy Mounds National Monument Quarter, the first of this year’s five coins from the U.S. Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters® Program.
Next week kicks off a series of coin events for Effigy Mounds National Monument, a park in Iowa where more than 200 prehistoric mounds were built by Native Americans.
Early on Monday, Feb. 6, the quarter commemorating the site gets released into general circulation by the Federal Reserve. Then, later on the same day at noon ET, the public can start buying rolls and bags Effigy Mounds quarters directly from the U.S. Mint. Finally, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, the National Park Service and the United States Mint will formally unveil the new quarter at a ceremony in Waukon, Iowa.
Earlier this year, on Jan. 5, the U.S. Mint started selling proofs of all five 2017 quarters. Proof coins are minted for coin collectors, featuring sharper design detail, frosted foregrounds, and mirror-like backgrounds. To offer a better look at the Effigy Mounds quarter, we snapped several photos of proofs and share them now.
Obverses (heads) are common to all quarters, showcasing the 1932 portrait of George Washington by John Flanagan.
Reverses of each America the Beautiful Quarter are emblematic of the site they honor. The quarter for Iowa is the 36th issue in the ATB series and the first of five for 2017. Designed by Richard Masters and sculpted by Renata Gordon, the Effigy Mounds quarter depicts an aerial view of mounds in the Marching Bear Group. War. It was selected after some refinements following a review of 13 candidate designs. Inscribed around the design are EFFIGY MOUNDS, IOWA, 2017, and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
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Near the middle of this month, the U.S. Mint will sell proofs of the 2017 quarters struck in silver. Towards the end of the month it will release a three-coin set of Effigy Mounds quarters that includes coins in both uncirculated and proof qualities. We’ll cover both of those releases here on CoinNews. For now, check out the Mint’s already-for-sale quarter products right here.
The other four 2017 America the Beautiful quarters depict Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, D.C., Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri, Ellis Island (Statue of Liberty National Monument) in New Jersey, and George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Indiana.
These do look like animal crackers but that is the image they have at the Effigy Mounds National Monument. So I guess we can’t blame the mint for a bad design on this one.