Today, January 10, 2012, the United States Mint has made available its first collectible product of the year, its 2012 United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set™.

Priced at $41.95 and available directly from http://catalog.usmint.gov/, the proof set features San Francisco minted coins with the "S" mint mark on the El Yunque National Forest Quarter for Puerto Rico, the Chaco Culture National Historical Park Quarter for New Mexico, the Acadia National Park Quarter for Maine, Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park Quarter for Hawaii and Denali National Park Quarter for Alaska.

The quarters are struck from 90 percent silver — unlike like the clad versions that are seen in circulation change, making the weight of the five coins combined total to just over 0.9 ounces of the precious metal. (This amount can be used as a multiplier of the current price of silver to determine the set’s melt value — see the silver coin price guide for automatic melt calculations.) As a note, a clad proof set for the quarters is expected out next week. While the coins in that set will be composed of the same metal as the circulating quarters, they will of course be minted to proof quality — like the silver proof set — making them more desirable to coin collectors.

The silver proof set is the third released to include the America the Beautiful Quarters, the series introduced by the US Mint in 2010 that honors a specific American national site with a unique reverse design. The set comes packaged within US Mint branded black and white wrapping which surrounds a protective plastic lens holding the coins.