This April the United States Mint announced that the West Point Mint was striking 2019-W America the Beautiful quarter dollars for general circulation. These 2019-W quarters will be added to commerce in select cities in 29 states throughout the year. The mint is releasing them into circulation as a bid to spur interest in numismatics among the general population. Coin collectors are already searching for and finding W mint mark quarters of the first two designs. The hunt for these coins is on.

The 2019-W America the Beautiful Quarter Dollars

The U.S. Mint has been issuing America the Beautiful quarters since 2010 at a rate of 5 per year. The coins depict national parks and other national sites. The five designs for the 2019 America the Beautiful quarters are:

• Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts
• American Memorial Park in the Northern Mariana Islands
• War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in Texas
• Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho

These coins are being released into circulation to coincide with the American Numismatic Association’s National Coin Week as a part of The Great American Coin Hunt.

U.S. Mint Director David Ryder said, “We want to encourage Americans to consider coin collecting by making the W mint mark quarters only available in general circulation. We’re fortunate to be able to feature the W mint mark quarters at the same time dealers around the nation are mounting a similar effort to celebrate and promote the hobby of numismatics.”

The West Point mint will only produce two million of each design, a fraction of what the Philadelphia and Denver mints will produce.

That means if you want the 2019-W quarter dollars, you’re going to have to hunt for them - or wait until other people have hunted them down and put them up for sale at a premium price.

The Great American Coin Hunt

Rob Oberth and Roundtable Trading designed The Great American Coin Hunt to spark the interest of the public in coin collecting. The GACH coincides with the release of the 2019 America the Beautiful quarter dollars, but many coin dealers also released numismatically significant coins of their own into circulation to make the hunt more interesting and potentially lucrative. During National Coin Week, April 21-27, dealers released 1 million collectible coins into circulation. That’s a lot of treasure to find.

For people in the general public who have not collected coins before, The Great American Coin Hunt offers a wonderful opportunity to start looking through the change you already have and will be getting in your day-to-day financial transactions. It can be very exciting to find collectible coins, whether they are Lincoln Wheat cents, Kennedy half dollars, or these new 2019-W America the Beautiful quarter dollars. For many, a lifelong, satisfying hobby has been born with small but exciting discoveries like these.

Good luck and happy hunting! If you'd like help in any of your coin searches, make an appointment to talk to us today by calling 616-884-5048.