Shawnee National Forest Quarter

The thirty-first quarter in the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters® Program will be released early 2016 and be known as the Shawnee National Forest Quarter, honoring the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois.

Although the United States Mint knows which national sites are being honored, the design for the quarters released in 2016 will not officially be made public until late in 2015.  In 2015, design candidates for the 2016 quarters including the Shawnee National Forest Quarter will be reviewed by the appropriate individuals and groups with their comments forwarded to the Treasury Secretary who will make the final decision.

This process only applies to the reverse of the coins, however. The obverse of all of the America the Beautiful coins contains the same design – a portrait of George Washington, the first President of the United States as designed by John Flanagan.

While the Shawnee National Forest Quarter is the first quarter released during 2016, there will be four other strikes following it in the series that year – Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Quarter, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Quarter, Theodore Roosevelt National Park Quarter, and Fort Sumter National Monument Quarter.


 

Shawnee National Forest information

Shawnee National Forest of Illinois was established in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt who set aside the initial land. It was created as a way to prevent further deforestation and erosion from farm land and from logging.

The area originally did have quite a large concentration of trees, but most of them had been cut down by the logging industry and by farmers who attempted to grow crops on the land. However, the land proved to be relatively unproductive for farming which eventually led to the creation of the national forest and a re-seeding project was begun.

Today, reforestation is still in progress but visitors can also partake in a variety of outdoor recreational activities offered in Shawnee.  There are an abundance of mammals, birds, and other creatures in the areas that visitors may encounter.