State Quarters
Is anyone else collecting the USA State Quarters?
For those of you not in the USA: In 1999 the US mint started replacing our normal quarters with a different quarter for each state. We have 50 states, and each year 5 new quarters are released.I'm not a coin collector, but since about ten to fifteen dollars worth of quarters pass through my hands every time I use the public laundromat, this seemed like a good hobby to try. It was unlikely I'd have any trouble finding the quarters I'd need. I'm also terrible at geography and I secretly hoped that by collecting state coins I might get better at this subject by osmosis. (For what it's worth, that hasn't happened!)
I've kept track of which quarters I have and which ones I still need, but I didn't have them in any kind of album until the other day when two albums I'd ordered arrived from Amazon.com. I spent a couple of days sorting through my quarters and pressing them into the appropriate slots in my nice neat new little books, and I learned a few things from this experience:
- Pressing coins into cardboard slots makes your thumbs hurt.
- Pressing coins into cardboard slots makes your neck hurt.
- I have a lot more Philadelphia minted coins than Denver minted coins (the coins in circulation are minted in those two cities. The collector's coins -never touched by human hands- are minted in San Francisco.)
- Sometimes it's really hard to see if your coin has a P (for Philadelphia) or D (for Denver).
- Albums are a lot heavier when they have quarters in them.
- Filling in the last quarter of a row of previously empty round slots, results in a curious urge to yell "Bingo!"
16 Comments:
Ahem, D is for Denver.
Why are you holding the album against your neck while pushing the quarters in with your thumb?
Denver... right. I knew that... Changing that now! Lol!
Ok. Done! Lol! Yeah, kinda flaked on that one. Thank you for the correction :)
And I wasn't holding them against my neck. Once the thumbs got sore I'd insert the quarters by placing one on my forehead and slamming my head into the book ;)
Interesting method!
Oh, are the state quarters also minted in San Francisco?
The collector's sets are, but not the ones in circulation (I'm pretty sure I got *that* right! Lol!)
I tried collecting for a while, but had no patience for waiting for the next year for the new ones to come out.
Also, give my blog a look when you get a minute, you get a most honorable mention and a "sweet" offer, if you'd like it.
Umm, I don't have an email for you...thanks for the comment on my blog. I wasn't trying to be misleading, I know who sent me the lip balm, but it was your idea that lead the SO to find it. So you DO get huge credit there! I'd still like to make you cookies...email me and let me know what kind.
vanessalongman@mac.com
Thank you! I just wanted to make sure that if someone sent them to you (I assumed you'd bought them yourself) THEY weren't missing out on getting the credit and thinking "Hey...why are you sending Melissa cookies? She didn't send those to you! I did!" Lol!
Thank you again. :) I'll email you in a bit.
No..I'm not collecting them. I considered it. I think it's a really neet idea. It makes me look at the coins. I always like looking at the dates too. And if I'm in the drive through I'll stack my bills in alphabetical order by state. Hubby has some coins he collects but I don't know anything about them.
Wait a minute... we have states on our bills too? When did that happen? Lol! Did you mean quarters?
Say I'm going to be in the US for two weeks. Think I can collect all of them in that time?
Missy: Probably not! but you could try :)
If you really want to give it a shot, ask for a couple of rolls of quarters from a bank to get you started. Then ask everyone you meet to check their quarters for you while you're here. It might actually become pretty funny. "Wait wait everybody... before we pay for our food, we have to check and make sure that none of these are quarters that MISSY needs!" ;)
I think you should do it! :) Carry a list of our states with you and check them off as you find each quarter. Keep the quarters themselves in a bag in your room or something as you find them.
FYI: Not all the quarters have been released yet. I think there's still 4 or 5 more for this year to complete the original 50 State set. (Some extra coins will be released next year to cover US territories as well.)
-So when and where will you be visiting in the US? :)
That sounds like an awesome thing to do! I'll be over for BlogHer in July. San Francisco, LA, and Vegas for sure.
Sounds like fun :) Let me know how you do with the collecting!
Ah yez … a friend gave me the album the 1st year they minted the quarters and I have all for the first 3 years … some from the 4th … and must admit I haven’t given it much thought lately but I do check my change for new quarters. A couple of friends who travel have collections as well. Your post might get me to check my album and see what I need.
Hugs and blessings,
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