The House of Representatives has just passed the National park Quarter program UNANIMOUSLY. I don't know what the Senate's going to do, but if it passes (remember that they held up the terrirorial extension forever and it had to pass as a sneaky amendement to another bill), then a standard reverse may never be seen again. Is this a good idea, circulating commemerative quarter designs FOREVER? The program wouldn't end until like 2022 or something like that, by which time another program would have been instigated to replace it, (tradition, y'know).
Worse than that. the legislation contains a provision to allow for a SECOND pass through the states and territories for another National Park so it could run through 2032
It's getting to be like the B.E.P. and postage stamps. It used to be that there was a standard issue of Definitive stamps used for everyday postage; along with that, every year five or six Commerative stamps were issued to commerate a very narrow list of people, subjects, events, etc. Then, in the 80's the B.E.P. realized that they had a cash cow by the tail and started issuing commeratives for everything under the sun. These were being issued for collectors only and had little use as actual postage. If you wanted to complete year sets you had to buy the junk along with the real ones. This is what the mint is doing now with the dollar coins, quarters, nickels, with the cents and dimes probably not far behind. These coins have nothing at all to do with general money; they are being minted with the idea that they will be taken out of circulation and collected. It's done for the profit of the mint, not for the convenience of the public. Gold is another case. Gold coins are being minted with no idea that they will ever be used for commerce. The mint is doing nothing more than selling bullion at greatly inflated prices.
I agree that this does seem like overkill; however, the state quarter program in general has added many a collector to the ranks of this hobby, imo. It may not be all bad...
Beth Dreisher suggested if they are going to do this National Parks program, they should use Teddy Roosevelt's image on the obverse. I agree with her.
Putting TR on the quarter will unleash the same Virginia delegation that made the return to Monticello reverse a reality. Instead of possibly getting Schlage's original reverse design the gentlemen from Va. held up the Lewis and Clark nickels in commitee until Virginia was assured of it's rightful place back on the nickel.As it ever was. I believe General Washington was also from Virginia. I also believe a second Roosevelt on our coinage would be great. Our coins are stagnant! Let's shake up the designs. Good Luck!
