Designs for the 2015 ATB Quarters

[chrisild]

Next year the US Mint will issue five new quarters (25c coins) in the "America The Beautiful" series. That coin series started in 2010 and will be continued until 2021. One national park or similarly relevant site per state/territory has been or will be featured, 56 all in all. The 2015 coins are about these sites:

* Delaware (Bombay Hook Nat'l Wildlife Refuge)
* Louisiana (Kisatchie National Forest)
* Nebraska (Homestead National Monument)
* New York (Saratoga National Historical Park)
* North Carolina (Blue Ridge Parkway)

The 44 submitted designs have now been published. You can see them here for example:
http://www.coinnews.net/2014/02/11/2015-america-the-beautiful-quarter-and-5-oz-coin-design-candidates/

Five of them (one for each state/site) are attached below. Of course those are not necessarily the designs that will ultimately be minted. Click the link to view all of them.

Christian

[Figleaf]

I wonder if the road coin would not qualify for the "one of a kind" thread. If a scenic road qualifies for a commemorative, we can expect a deluge of road coins, though. I suspect the road to Malcolm's front door would qualify also. It describes itself as a tourist road. So there.

Peter

[<k>]

Agreed. "A highway?!" I thought. I suppose it's a bit more scenic than most.

The Canada geese are a bit of a surprise. Surely they are copyright to Canada. But then those Americans have expressions such as "American as apple pie", so you just know they'll steal anything and call it their own. 

The other bird illustrated is a red cockaded woodpecker, apparently.  And that hillbilly mowing the lawn is in fact using a plough. Or "plow", as the Americans sometimes spell it.

[chrisild]

Yes, that highway is kind of special. The BRP was actually built to connect two national parks, so that visitors could get from one to the other on a scenic route. More importantly, I was on it for a few mi/km, near ... errm ... Little Switzerland.

As for the geese, to be fair, the Delaware (Bombay Hook) quarter designs feature other birds too. Mostly the great blue heron, the egret (apparently some kind of heron too) and - one design only - Canada geese.

Christian

[WillieBoyd2]

We need more Wild Turkeys!

[Prosit]

Nebraska is famous for its prairies. The state is characterized by treeless prairie, ideal for cattle-grazing, and it is a major producer of beef, as well as pork, corn, and soybeans.

Not many hills and a long long way from Appalachia, the traditional regional home of hillbillies.  That is an image of a "sod-buster" not a "hillbilly"

Sodbuster = farmer = granger = husbandman (mostly a farmer)
Hillbilly = Yokel = Bushwhacker = rustic

Both are disparaging terms for an unsophisticated person but not necessairly the same.

Dale
Ein Hinterwäldler in Texas 

...... that hillbilly mowing the lawn is in fact using a plough. Or "plow", as the Americans sometimes spell it.