File This Under: A Quarter for Your Thoughts

Thanks to the Le maudit Mo D blog, I received this sad news yesterday:

A couple of days ago, two Hawaii quarters came charging out of the Jewel-Osco change machine after a transaction involving shampoo and Kaiser rolls. “Hawaii!” I said to Bob. “That means it’s over.” It’s true. The state quarter program, established in 1999, is over. All fifty state quarters have been issued.

Now, I never collected these quarters or anything, but my sister was hardcore about it. And for the past ten years, I’ve gotten a little thrill of joy upon discovering a state quarter that I hadn’t seen before. This is one of those programs that I never thought about missing, but now I find myself rather sad to see it go.

Though caveat: I am a little sad that Hawaii chose King Kamehameha I for the back of their quarter as opposed to the more iconic hula girl, which was also nominated. A hula girl would have been so much fun and as far as I can see, there are no women featured on state quarters, which seems a little insane, since from what I gather, we helped build this country, too. But then again, men are way outnumbered by animals on the quarters, so there you go.

Next up: A state territories (Washington D.C, Puerto Rico, et al) for 2009. And, you know, I wouldn’t mind if they launched a state nickel program in 2010. Read more about the most successful coin program in U.S. history and its future here.