American Samoa among the five territories to be
featured on the US quarter
The Associated Press reports that the Pacific Ocean territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands will be featured on the flip side of the quarter.
“After nearly ten years of lobbying, a measure tucked into a massive federal spending bill passed by Congress will extend the popular state quarter program to the three Pacific territories, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands,” the AP reported.
The new quarters will be minted in 2009 and the designs have not yet been finalized.
Guam’s nonvoting delegate to Congress, Madeleine Bordallo told the AP, “We have been working for years to have the territories and the District of Columbia included in the commemorative quarter program. The Guam quarter will be a great way to showcase our island.”
In 1998, when a law establishing the nationwide quarters program was passed, Washington and the territories were not included. The US Mint began issuing the coins the following year, according to the order that each state was admitted to the union.
According to the AP, the program was to wind up next year. To date, about 30 billion coins have been minted.
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