My Son's First Collection

Yesterday we happened into a coin shop (it was next door to my wife's new favorite baby supply store). They had these collector's maps for state series quarters and the upcoming national park quarters. I knew there were people who collected the the 50 State Quarters® but I guess I missed or forgot the news that there was a 2009 District of Columbia and U.S. Territories Quarters Program, much less a new series starting this year. According to their official website, "the United States Mint will issue 56 quarter-dollar coins featuring designs depicting national parks and other national sites as part of the America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program. Each year, the public will see five new national site designs depicted on the reverse (tails side) of America the Beautiful Quarters. The United States Mint will issue these quarters in the order in which the honored site was first established as a national site." The first three release dates have passed but the biggest, most recognizable one is coming up next month:

Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas (4/19/10)

Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (6/1/10)

Yosemite National Park in California (7/26/10)

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (9/20/10)

Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon (11/15/10)

This is very timely because we just watched the Ken Burns documentary series, The National Parks: America's Best Idea and we've decided to visit as many national parks as we can. Also, my son is getting old enough that he can get excited for holidays and family vacations and maybe even keep up along the trail. Already, one of his favorite things to do is to put quarters in the machines at the laundromat. Anytime he finds change on the floor or in our furniture, he brings it to us and announces it's "money for washing clothes," so saving quarters for these collector's maps should come naturally. Actually, I plan to make a weekly activity out of going to the laundromat, changing dollar bills into quarters, and stopping to separate the ones we have yet to collect. After only one night we have 18! (Alabama, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming) As we get closer to filling our map, we may ask for help in finding rare states and territories that we haven't been lucky enough to score while doing laundry.