America celebrates existence of Northern Mariana Islands with commemorative quarter

eerac — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:38:19 +0000

During an otherwise shoddy decade, the US Mint spent most of the aughts engaged in a noble attempt to lift our nation’s spirit with its delightfully patriotic 50 State Quarters Program. Following that program’s overwhelming success (e.g. no one got hurt, many people continued to use quarters), the mint shrewdly undertook a shorter, but no less patriotic District of Columbia and United States Territories Quarter Program.
Although I was hugely enthusiastic about the initial 50 State Quarters Program (just ask my freshman year roommate), I spent most of 2009 foolishly preoccupied with writing a PhD Thesis, and thus failed to even notice the follow up program until yesterday, when I was shocked (SHOCKED) to discover that a coin in my possession featured a design commemorating the Northern Mariana Islands. Naturally I assumed I’d been given some manner of foreign or counterfeit currency, but I could not have been more wrong.

Under the District of Columbia and United States Territories Quarter Program the following non-state quarters were issued in 2009.

District of Columbia (January 26, 2009)
Puerto Rico (March 30, 2009)
Guam (May 26, 2009)
American Samoa (July 27, 2009)
U.S. Virgin Islands (September 28, 2009)
Northern Mariana Islands (November 30, 2009)

If you ask me, this list is kind of implicitly sticking it to the District of Columbia, since (as is all too often the case) a rather centrally located chunk of the continental US is being lumped together with a bunch of crazy island territories scattered throughout the globe (I’m looking at you Puerto Rico). What’s more, whereas the 50 State Quarter Program typically released between 500 million and 1 billion quarters per state, the follow up District of Columbia and United States Territories Quarter Program released only 636.2 million quarters in total. In fact the final territory quarter, which I now proudly possess, was only minted in a batch of 72.8 million.

While 72.8 million may sound like a lot, it means there was not even one Northern Mariana Islands US Quarter minted per US household. Once the general public gets wind of this shortage (not to mention the quarter’s breathtaking depiction of a seaside Latte Stone) demand is sure to skyrocket. Needless to say, with so few coins to go around, I will be placing my household’s quarter safely within the confines of the Rachlin family safe deposit box, along side our supply of gold bars and other precious metals. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on one of these rare beauties, I suggest you do the same.

Overheard In Providence » money

America celebrates existence of Northern Mariana Islands with commemorative quarter