Was curious because I never saw anyone answer, or even ask, this question: Officially, as of now, what happens to the quarter in 2031? According to the most recently passed legislation, in 2031, after the youth sports program concludes, the quarter obverse reverts back to the "standard" design from 1932 and the reverse reverts to the "Crossing the Delaware" design from 2021. Unless of course legislation is passed before then that changes that. And it's a pretty safe bet it probably will. But nothing has been passed yet or as far as I know been proposed yet. Interesting thing about the half dollar I've not heard anyone mention or discuss: legislation says that in 2031 it will be retired as a circulating coin, but may still be minted for "numismatic and commemorative purposes." Nothing is said about the design but presumably any they still mint, other than for commemorative purposes, would revert to the standard obverse and reverse of the 1964 design. Everyone's talking about the penny's retirement but I've not heard anyone mention that the half dollar has an official retirement date too. But let's be honest, it has been effectively "retired on active duty" since 1964. Anyway I was curious about this and figure other people might be too.
To your point about the half dollar, it's already been that way for a while. NIFC was the numismatic purpose for almost 20 years, but they started minting them in large quantities beginning in 2021 for whatever reason. I don't know what demand there is for halves really, other than gaming establishments and coin roll hunters. One of my friends got a box of halves from his bank two weeks ago and every single roll was a 2023 so he just took it to a different bank. Most collectors don't even care about the NIFCs really, unless it's a rare date like 2012, 2013 or 2017. Safe to assume they'll make them NIFCs again (all they need is just to mint far less of them). I don't think they'll fully go away cause they do seem like a staple for table games in casinos, at least from what I've seen. In regular commerce though, they're just a weird and all around useless coin- I bought something in a convenience store for $8 and had half a dozen of the halves which I wanted to use but the shop owner didn't want them ("wHeRe aM i GuNNa pUt tHeM"). Seems like half the population doesn't even think it's a real coin and a third just relentlessly hoards them. Going back to the normal 1932 quarter design would be pretty cool, honestly not a fan of the new George Washington bust on the 2022-present quarters. 2021 I think was my favorite modern design, if they went back to that, it would probably be best but I don't really have any info on that.
To clarify, in 2031 the obverse is due to go back to the 1932 design (which it did in 2021 after the last of the America the Beautiful quarters were minted, until the American Women quarters started in 2022) and the reverse is due to go the "Crossing the Delaware" design of 2021. Unless they pass legislation to the contrary before then. I don't think youth sports is a terrible idea, but it does make me think they're running out of ideas. I'm struggling to think of any good ideas for what to do next; heck, I can't even think of any bad ones lol.
To be fair, I think they should just keep the Crossing the Delaware design and give us time to enjoy it a bit more haha. I don't see that many of them, and I suspect I'm not the only one plucking the 2021 quarters out of circulation just because they look nice. Youth sports? I dunno, I guess professional sports afterward makes sense, but then the mint is just oversaturating the circulating supply with designs no one really cares about anymore (most people don't even use cash that much anymore). 50 states and national parks were good but anything else is just a coin design for the sake of changing the design. Also I agree- definitely seems like they are a bit short on fresh ideas. Made me remember what Canada is doing- they have so many circulating commemoratives, it's kind of crazy- millennium, 50 years of QEII's reign, Mountie anniversary, Youth engagement or something like that, etc. And they have officially-made colorized coins which is interesting too. Out here it's mostly gimmick companies like Littleton or Bradford that do that sort of stuff.
