Available from the United States Mint beginning at Noon (Eastern) on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 will be the 2013 America the Beautiful Quarters Circulating Coin Set™. It holds this year’s national site and national park quarters.
Pricing of the set is listed as $5.95, plus the U.S. Mint’s standard shipping and handling charge of $4.95 per order. An order can have multiple products, so this would be a good time to purchase those products you may have missed earlier in the year to lighten the per product shipping cost.
Notably, this ten-coin set marks the last release of the year for the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program and includes examples of each of the five 2013-dated strikes of the series.
"This set contains one each of the five circulating quality America the Beautiful Quarters from the United States Mint at Philadelphia and one each of the five circulating quality America the Beautiful Quarters from the United States Mint at Denver (a total of 10 coins per set)," describes the US Mint.
"The packaging allows customers to easily open it if desired so the coins may be removed and placed into albums or other collecting tools."
As the product name suggests, each quarter in the set is of circulation quality, although none of them have actually been released into circulation. Instead, the U.S. Mint pulls them off the production floor after striking for inclusion in numismatic offerings such as the set.
The ten included national site or national park quarters of the 2013 America the Beautiful Quarters Circulating Coin Set are:
- 2013-D and 2013-P White Mountain National Forest Quarter
- 2013-D and 2013-P Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial Quarter
- 2013-D and 2013-P Great Basin National Park Quarter
- 2013-D and 2013-P Fort McHenry Memorial and Historic Shrine Quarter
- 2013-D and 2013-P Mount Rushmore National Memorial Quarter
Each of the above coins features a reverse design emblematic of the indicated national park or site. The five coins listed respectively honor locations in New Hampshire, Ohio, Nevada, Maryland and South Dakota, respectively.
The 2013 America the Beautiful Quarters represents the sixteenth through twentieth of the program. This series debuted in 2010 and features five new releases annually each honoring a different site of national interest on its reverse. Additional strikes, most of them featuring national parks, are scheduled for release at a rate of five per year until 2021. That is when the last of the fifty-six new coins will have been issued with one representing a site from each state, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories.
Like the program, these America the Beautiful Quarters Circulating Coin Sets also debuted in 2010. The inaugural year release and the one from 2011 were each offered at a price point of $9.95. For 2012, the U.S. Mint lowered that year’s set to $5.95, which is the same price used for this newest release.
When released, orders for the set may be made via the United States Mint website at http://www.usmint.gov/catalog. Orders by phone are accepted by calling 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468).
No mintage, product or household order limits are in place for the circulating coin set.
As a side note, these circulating coin sets are also offered as part of the U.S. Mint’s subscription program. When ordered under the subscription service, the set will be issued once available. Subscribers will also receive each subsequent year’s release in the same manner, unless cancelled. More information about the Mint’s subscription service is available on its website.
Why is it that these quarters are not readily available to the general available?
There are a variety of reasons, to include much lower mintages than the state quarters series and the inability of banks to order them by design
This article offers some background:
http://www.parkquarters.com/national-park-quarter-information/where-to-get-national-park-quarters