The U.S. quarter, which has been produced since 1796 took on a new look as of 1997 when the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act was signed into law on December 1st by then President Bill Clinton. The decision to strike these new and collectible coins took many years to finally become reality, but the idea to honor each of the states of the union as they first became part of these United States was generally accepted as positive. The first state quarter was of course, Delaware and was released into circulation in 1999. Being the 38th state in the union, the Colorado quarter was minted 3rd in line in 2006.

The quarters that were minted before 1965 featured the profile of George Washington and were made of 90% silver and 10% copper. Now the coins are nickel plated copper to keep the cost of production realistic. The generations prior to 1999 remember the back of the quarter as featuring the American eagle which has been in circulation since 1934. As the new production of quarters began in 1999, the old ones were no longer being struck.

Only two mints are left to produce these coins, one in Philadelphia and the other here in Denver, Colorado. The old San Francisco Mint has only produced “proof coinage” since 1975. The production was split between the two Mints and at the end of 2008 all 50 states were finished. According to the official numbers given by the U.S. Mint, the total was 34,797,600,000 minted coins.  It has been one of the most popular commemorative coin programs in the history of the United States. Estimates are over one hundred million people have collected these quarters to some degree.

Each year there were 5 new state quarters released by the U.S. Mint. That works out to one new collectible coin every 73 days (or 10 weeks). The design of each was unique to the state it represented and each has a part of the history and symbolism of the state integrated into the quarters reverse side.  Residents of each state were chosen by their state government to create a design that would celebrate the best of that state. The symbols featured on the Colorado State Quarter are the date of statehood – 1876, the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Blue Spruce, a banner which has the phrase “Colorful Colorado”, and the Latin words “E Pluribus Unum” underneath the date of issue – 2006.

Directions to visit the Denver Mint