ATB QUARTER FATIGUE

      The America the Beautiful Quarter program started in 2010. Like the State Quarter series which preceded it, it is a eleven-ish year program featuring five designs a year for each of the fifty states and six U.S. territories with devices depicting a national park or historic site, one from each state/territory and in the order they were introduced. Eleven designs have been issued thus far starting with Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. The series so far does not appear to be enjoying any level of popularity except with hard-core collectors. There are several reasons for this.

      One, the mintages for the designs thus far have been unusually low due to a huge glut of state quarters produced from 1999-2009 and a stagnant economy dampening coin production in general. The mintages for the first eleven parks currently just about equal the entire mintage of the Delaware Quarter. That's right, a little over two years worth of quarters does not even equal the amount made of the very first State Quarter. Because of this, you may not have encountered many, or even any, at all. I work with money at my job and even with first access, I have seen less than $15 worth of ATB quarter designs since the program's inception. This creates a lack of awareness and that is not helpful.

       Nextly, while some parks are famous (Grand Canyon National Park), others are decidedly less so (Chaco Culture National Historical Park). At least with the states, you are more aware of them thanks to Geography classes and the news (especially during elections). Keeping the various designs in mind is difficult because in addition to several of these parks not being widely known, their release order does not mirror the order the states joined the union like in the State Quarter series. This makes keeping track of (and even knowing) what you're missing is considerably more difficult without a guide.

        I think aesthetically a different obverse would have been in order. When you think of National Parks, which President do you associate with them? Did you say President Theodore Roosevelt? Even if you didn't, a lot of people did and thought his image should be on the obverse of the new quarter, replacing George Washington. However, as politics would have it, Washington was retained because no politician wanted to be associated with removing him from the quarter never mind that over 72 BILLION quarters exist with his bust on them (and that's not counting the silver ones made from 1932-1964 which no longer circulate) and that he is on the first Presidential Dollar coin AND he's still on the one dollar bill made by the billions each year. Washington would not be going anywhere. A quick search of a handful of quarters would show dates going back to 1965. Almost fifty years after quarters lost their silver, they can still be found and found rather readily. Even if the ATB program ultimately yielded the same 35 billion quarters the State Quarter program yielded over its lifetime, they would still be outnumbered over 2 to 1. Washington would still be ever-present in your pocket change but such logic would not sway Congress. Instead, it is still Washington on the obverse though we collectors were thrown a bone by having his bust restored to be more like it was in 1932 when the design was first introduced. I like it (just like I appreciate the restored Lincoln portrait on the new Union Shield cents), but because our coins no longer have slightly concave fields and their relief has been sharply reduced over the years, the design is rather flat and appears nearly featureless at most viewing angles. Maybe they'll look better with some toning. Still I think T. Roosevelt should have been the design on the obverse of these quarters. It may have helped spur interest in the series.

      Some good will come of all this though. Eventually mintages will rise and when that happens, awareness will build. If people start collecting these designs with even a quarter (no pun intended) the ferocity shown with the State Quarter program, that will put pressure on the supplies of the lower mintage designs which may benefit those who entered into the program right away. But I don't actually think that would do it. I think this series will always suffer due to collector fatigue and because it is not as compelling as the State Quarter series.

      No, I think what would be the best the way to promote interest in the series would be a genuine rarity...or at least the perception of one. Currently the El Yunque design (forest preserve in Puerto Rico) is the lowest mintage at about 25 million per mint. Now while that is low for modern coin production, it is still not low from a collectible standpoint unless more people start collecting these coins than its total mintage. That would actually be interesting from my standpoint propelling its value upward. If the series remains neglected for a few more years and suddenly breaks out, it could pay off well for some people. But I think a design would need to be lower than that...at least less than 10 million from at least one mint. It could happen if circumstances intervene like another recession and like what happened in 2002 when the Philadelphia Mint had to close for six weeks. It caused the production of Ohio quarters to be significantly less than other designs of that year (about 220 million were made anyway so don't get excited). If the mintage of one such design were to be less than 10 million pieces, it would definitely drive interest in that design which then might carry over into the rest of the series. Hell, that scenario would even excite me and I really try not to be bothered with modern coins.

      I don't feel like concluding this properly so that's all you get.

ADDENDUM: Apparently I am not the only one who had this idea.