Governor Granholm Announces Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to be Honored in U.S. Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program

LANSING - Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced that Michigan has received official word that Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore will be honored in the new United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters program.

"We are pleased to have one of Michigan's treasures honored by the U.S. Mint," said Governor Granholm.  "Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a crown jewel of Michigan, and now we can showcase our stunning site to the world."

The United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters program is a 12-year initiative authorized by Public Law 110-456 - the America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008.  The act directs the United States Mint to strike and issue 56 circulating quarters with reverse (tails) side designs emblematic of a national park or other national site in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. 

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a U.S. National Lakeshore on the shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The park offers magnificent scenery of the hilly shoreline between Munising and Grand Marais with natural archways, waterfalls, and sand dunes.  The U.S. Congress made Pictured Rocks the first officially-designated National Lakeshore in the United States in 1966.

Michigan submitted its site preferences to the U.S. Mint in February this year.  Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner approved the list of sites recommended by the United States Mint on August 25, 2009, after consultation with Governor Granholm and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

The quarters will be issued sequentially each year, in the order in which the featured site was first established as a national park or site.  The coins' obverse (heads) side will feature the familiar "restored" 1932 portrait of George Washington, including subtle details and the beauty of the original model.

The complete National Site Registry, which lists all 56 sites to be honored under the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program in chronological order by year, will be available at http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProgram/?action=siteRegisteron September 9, 2009, at 10 a.m.

For more information about the program, please visit http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProgram/index.cfm.

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