1999-D GEORGIA QUARTER

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Circulation strikes: 488,744,000
Designer: John Flanagan
Modified by Don Everhart
Engraver: T. James Ferrell
Diameter: ±24.2 millimeters
Metal content:
Outer layers - 75% Copper, 25% Nickel
Center - 100% Copper
Weight: ±5.67 grams
Thickness: ±1.75 mm
Edge: Reeded
Mintmark: "D" (for Denver) on the obverse just right of the ribbon
Value: $0.50 (AU-50) up to $3.00 (MS-65)

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Nearly half way through the last year of the ’50 State Quarter’ program and here I am posting a coin from the first year. True, there will be D.C. and territories quarters next year, but that’s not the point. The point is, that when the State Quarter program started I kept thinking that ten years was far too long a time. How were we supposed to maintain a level of interest for that long? Would anyone even care by the time we reached the end? Truth is that ten years went by much faster than expected. The program created new designs each year, complete with the chance of finding new errors and a bit of justification for hours on end of OCD induced sorting. I may not appreciate the over commemorization* of our coinage, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the ride. And while I’ve endeavored to reduce my generic coin hoard I still have a very happy, pirate style chest full of damn near every state quarter that has passed my way. Someday that chest will help kids, grandkids, nephews, and the like start the decent into madness that is coin collecting by ensuring they can complete circulation sets of the state quarters… and I can always pretend I’m helping them learn geography while I’m at it.

*yeah I know that’s probably not a real word.