Recently I visited my best friend's aunt who is a philatelist and a numismatist. After looking at her collection of Indian coins and currency notes, I then realised that I had a few of the British £2 coins of various designs. That day after a bit of Google search and realising the significance of the designs, it led me to write my blog - Two Pound British Coins.
On the same day, as I was leaving for home, she asked to start a collection on US Quarters. I was not too keen to start something that would be difficult to get as I don't live in that country and sourcing the required stuff would be an expensive affair. Hence I just brushed it aside.
Today, as I was a bit free at work, her request to start US Quarters collection suddenly popped into my mind. So I went to Mr. Know-It-All, our dear Mr. Google and just typed US Quarters. The second search result was 50 State Quarters, a Wikipedia link. Out of curiosity I opened the wiki link and in a few seconds, I was pleasantly surprised to know that it was a program and it featured each of the 50 U.S. states on unique designs for the reverse of the quarter.
The 50 State Quarters Program was started to support a new generation of coin collectors,and it became the most successful numismatic program in history, with roughly half of the U.S. population collecting the coins, either in a casual manner or as a serious pursuit. (Source : Wikipedia)
Now, I do remember having a few US coins back home and I was rather impatient to reach home and check my collection. Finally, the evening drew to an end and I was getting more impatient to reach home. As soon as I reached home, I made a dash to the box where I had stored all my other coins from various countries. I wanted to dive into the collection and check them out, but my dear even more impatient mum reminded me to have my dinner. After a quick dinner, I finally rummaged through my collection and found the US coins pouch.
I then quickly sorted out and kept the quarter coins aside. I then had a careful look at the quarter coins and to my surprise I realised that I had 5+1 of 50 State coins!!! Woohoo!!!!!! My mother who was observing all this from a distance, I guess realised that she has a very crazy grown up 'child', but was curious to know why I was in such a tearing hurry to see the coins. I tried explaining to her about my excitement on discovering that I do have about 6 coins in my new hobby, but I think she didn't even try to listen to me as she wanted me to open the Saint Teresa silk covers initially.
Anyway after a while, when the excitement died down and the silk covers were opened, appreciated, ooh'd, aah'd etc I sat and wondered what a fun filled moment it has been. I then realised why my aunt wanted me to start a US Quarter collection. Thank you Sri atte for recommending me to this wonder new collection that I could possibly start.
So I guess I now have another impossible task at hand. Start collecting the 50 State Quarters and the America the Beautiful Quarters. The Beautiful Quarters is another beautiful series to collect, inspired by the success of the 50 SQ, and sadly I have none.
Again, I realised that that had I known about this series before, during my the only brief or short visit to the States (Minneapolis, MN) in 2015, I could have done a bit of search of the remaining coins.
But, as stated before, some things I start only by accident without realising that it can lead to a nice big thing. And this is another of them. Long way to go, not sure how to continue, but I do hope some day I shall continue and complete it.
The 50 SQ coins I have in my collection are (in the order of year of release)
- New Jersey (Denver Mint)
- Connecticut (Philadelphia Mint)
- North Carolina (Philadelphia Mint)
- Tennessee (Philadelphia Mint)
- Iowa (Denver Mint)
District of Columbia and the unincorporated United States insular areas of Puerto Rico, Guam, United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands also ran the District of Columbia and nited States Territories Quarter Program once all the 50SQ were completed. From these 6 States, I only have the District of Columbia (Denver Mint).
So all in all 6 out 56 coins so far!!!!
Vinay
15-09-2016
0035 IST
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