Coin Blog

Today the US Mint released the 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set. This set contains all five of the quarters that will be released this year, even though four of them still have not been released for circulation.

The five quarters for 2010 feature Hot Springs National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, and Mount Hood National Forest. The set includes the proof versions of the coins, which are struck at the San Francisco Mint and carry the "S" mint mark.

The coins of the 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set are housed in a single plastic lens and placed in an outer cardboard box, packaged with a certificate of authenticity.

The set is somewhat costly at $14.95. In the past, I have usually waited for the full annual set to be released to get the proof quarters for each year. The 2010 Proof Set is due for release in July and should be priced at $31.95. The set will include a total of 14 coins, including proof versions of the newly designed Lincoln Cent, the Jefferson Nickel, Roosevelt Dime, Kennedy Half Dollar, Native American Dollar, and the four Presidential Dollars.

The first coin in the new America the Beautiful Quarters series was released on Monday. The coin features Hot Springs National Park located in Arkansas.

The Hot Springs National Park Quarter depicts the door of the main park building with a fountain before it. The obverse of the coin carries a portrait of George Washington as it appeared on the 1932 Washington Quarter.

An official launch ceremony was held at the park and coins were offered for sale on the US Mint's website in bags and rolls.

The US Mint will release five different quarter designs each year (a la 50 State Quarters Program) with a total of 56 different parks and sites featured. The authorizing legislation actually includes a provision for the extension of the program for a second round of designs, would would make it 112 different quarters over 24 years.

Last week, the United States Mint began selling the 2010 Presidential Dollar Uncirculated Set. This set contains the uncirculated versions of each of the 2010 Presidential Dollars from the Philadelphia and Denver Mints.

If the US Mint stays with past practice, the coins in the set will be minted with a special satin finish. This type of finish has been used for Mint Sets and some other collectible products since 2005. The satin finish makes the coins different than the regular business strikes.

The eight coin set is priced at $18.95 each. Even though I plan to purchase the 2010 Mint Set, which will also include these coins, I decided to purchase this set to get an earlier look at the Presidential Dollars for this year. I ordered the set on the opening day of sales and hope it arrives soon.

Late last week, the United States Mint began selling a packaged 2010 Lincoln Cent Two Roll Set. This set contains one 50-coin roll of coins from the Philadelphia Mint and one 50-coin roll of coins from the Denver Mint. The sets are priced at $8.95 for the $1.00 worth of coins.

The US Mint offered a similar product last year for each design issued for the 2009 Lincoln Cent. The pricing was the same, but collectors were very excited about the offering. Factors driving the demand for last year's set were the high secondary market prices of the first two roll set with the Birthplace design (product code LP1), the generally unavailability through circulation channels, and the generally low mintages for the coins.

The 2010 Lincoln Cent Two Roll Sets won't have as many factors driving demand. After the sell out of the LP1 set with only 100,000 in sales, the product runs were increased for subsequent sets, to upwards of 300,000. There is likely a similarly high or unlimited production run set for the 2010 Lincoln Cent Two Roll Sets.

The 2010 Lincoln Cent Rolls have become more generally available through channels of circulation and will sizable mintage. In the latest month, the US Mint doubled year to date production of the cent and is on pace to make more than 2 billion. The coins have been on eBay for the past several months, with prices already peaked and declined below the US Mint's two roll set price level.

Personally, I am going to pass on the 2010 Lincoln Two Roll Set (LP5). I expect that many collectors will still buy the set to complete the LP1-LP5 run, or as a collectible Lincoln product, but these aren't big enough motivating factors for me.

Earlier this week, the United States Mint unveiled the designs for this year's America the Beautiful Quarters. A special event was held in Washington, DC with attendees including the Director of the US Mint, the Secretary of the Interior, the United States Treasurer, and more.

Despite the build up to the event, for which collectors have been waiting nearly three months, the unveiling seemed a little bit anticlimactic. The candidate designs for the quarters have been circulating for about six months. I think the final selections for at least three of the quarters were pretty widely expected. The two less certain selections were for Hot Springs National Park- I expected the single image of the fountain to be used, and for Yosemite National Park- both the Half Dome and El Capitan seemed to be close contenders.

Below are image of the final selections. For the most part, these are the same line art representations that were revealed many months ago. The only difference I can spot is the removal of some illegible writing above the NPS seal on the Hot Springs Quarter.

The first quarter will be released on April 19, 2009. The exact release dates for the other four issues are still unknown.