Mint coins Camel Rock as a national treasure
HED: Mint coins Camel Rock as a national treasure
BY ANDREW TURNER
Staff Writer
The Garden of the Gods Camel Rock will soon get more national recognition when a "America the Beautiful Quarters Program" displays it on an upcoming coin.
U.S. Mint has announced that Camel Rock, a well-known site in the Shawnee National, will be honored as one of 56 national sites from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five US territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Somoa, the US Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Under this multi-year program, five new reverse (tails side) designs started appearing on quarters in 2010 and will continue through 2020. The quarters are being released sequentially in the order in which the featured site was established.
The Shawnee National Forest was chosen because it hosts the most acreage of any natural area in Illinois. Its large, public open spaces offer many recreation opportunities.
The forest also has some of the largest and most diverse blocks of mature hardwoods and forest interior habitats of national forests.
The park became a national site in 1939.
The launch and exchange of the Shawnee Quarter is set to start at 10 a.m. on Feb. 4 in the Southeastern Illinois College's Joseph Deaton Gymnasium. A coin forum is scheduled the day before from 5-6 p.m. on Feb. 3.
All of the coins are legal tender, issued by the U.S. Mint and available in general circulation. At the event, enthusiasts will be able to purchase the quarters in a one roll minimum and up to a 10 roll maximum.
The quarter will feature a design that depicts a close view of Camel Rock with natural vegetation in the foreground and a red-tailed hawk soaring in the sky overhead.
Design candidates for the quarter were developed in consultation with representatives of the Shawnee National Forest.
Other America the Beautiful quarters set for release this year include Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Kentucky; West Virginia's Harpers Ferry National Historical Park; Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota; and Fort Moultrie at the Fort Sumter National Monument in South Carolina.
Each year, five national site designs will be released. The final remaining quarter is expected to launch in 2021 and feature the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic site in Alabama.