DETROIT – Five designs showcasing the beauty of the United States will be added to quarters slated for release this year.
The first quarter from the “America the Beautiful” series will be released on Feb. 3, and it pays homage to the National Park of American Samoa. It features a mother Samoan fruit bat holding her young.
The bats are threatened because of habitat loss and commercial hunting.
The park is the only park in the country where the Samoan fruit bats are found.
The second quarter in the series will feature Connecticut’s Weir Farm National Historic Site. It has an artist on it, as Julian Alden Weir used to make art on the property. It will be released April 6.
Another quarter showcasing a living museum on the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, is due out June 1. The coin has a red mangrove tree on it. The park’s mangrove forests are endangered.
The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park will be featured on a coin slated for release on Aug. 31. It has a girl planting a Norway spruce seedling next to a tree to symbolize a conservationist.
The final quarter in the series, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve quarter, will be released Nov. 16. It shows a Regal Fritillary butterfly in front of Big Bluestem and Indian grasses. The grasses are iconic parts of the preserve.
The Federal Reserve will distribute the coins to banks based on demand, and specific designs are not considered when doing so. Those wishing to obtain a specific quarter can buy them from the U.S. Mint website.