The United States Mint will officially release the new Hawaii Volcanoes National Park quarter during a ceremony set for tomorrow (Wed., Aug. 29) near Kilauea, the Big Island volcano depicted on the coin.
The public is invited to attend the ceremony, and the new coin (pictured, right) will be available for coin/currency exchange. Park entrance fees will be waived while festivities are under way, between noon and 3 p.m. The ceremony is slated to start at 1:30 p.m. at Kahua Hula near Kilauea Visitors Center.
During the ceremony, some 2,000 Hawaii Volcanoes National Park quarters will be poured into a special receiving bowl and then handed out to schoolchildren in the audience. For anyone else interested in picking up the new coin, $10 rolls of the commemorative quarters will be available for coin/currency exchange.
The new quarter is part of the United States Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters® Program. The coin features an engraved image of an eruption on Kilauea’s East Rift Zone on its reverse (tails) side and inscriptions that read HAWAII VOLCANOES, HAWAII 2012 and E PLURIBUS UNUM. It was designed and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Charles L. Vickers.
The Hawaii Volcanoes’ quarter is the fourth quarter to be launched this year, and the 14th in a series of 56 circulating America the Beautiful Quarters. The reverse side designs are symbolic of a national park or other national site in each state, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. All coins in the program have a common obverse (heads side) featuring, of course, the portrait of George Washington and the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and QUARTER DOLLAR. Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website.
HawaiiMagazine.com reports regularly on lava activity at Kilauea volcano and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. Click here to catch up with all of our Volcano News posts. You can also follow our updates on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
