A standing-room-only crowd filled the Mather Elementary School Auditorium Feb. 7 in Munising, Michigan, for the U.S. Mint’s official launch ceremony for the 2018 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore quarter dollar.

The estimated crowd of 950 included 500 schoolchildren, each of whom was provided, after the ceremony, a free Uncirculated circulation quality 2018-P quarter dollar struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Collectors and other ceremony attendees were able to exchange cash for 40-coin $10 face value rolls of the new quarter dollars.

A total of $16,000 face value in new quarter dollars was exchanged by the sponsoring bank, Peoples State Bank of Munising.

The quarter dollar was released into general circulation through the Federal Reserve on Feb. 5, the same day the U.S. Mint began offering bags and rolls of the coins at numismatic premiums above face value. 

Feb. 6, approximately 50 people attended the coin forum at the Munising Township Office in Wetmore, Michigan, during which information was exchanged on current and upcoming U.S. Mint programs. 

Collectors’ Clearinghouse: What caused the doubled letters on Douglass quarter dollars? Also in this issue, Wendell Wolka finds more questions while answering another in his "Collecting Paper" column.

The design representing Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore depicts Chapel Rock and the white pine tree that grows atop it, with the inscriptions PICTURED ROCKS, MICHIGAN, 2018 and E PLURIBUS UNUM. This reverse, depicting a scene not far from the Munising coin launch site, was designed by U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program designer Paul C. Balan and sculptured by Mint Sculptor-Engraver Michael Gaudioso.

The quarter dollar is the 41st of 56 to be issued under the America the Beautiful Quarters Program, with one coin issued reflecting a national park or historic site in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories.