The West Point Mint has already begun production of the five 2020-W America the Beautiful quarter dollars for distribution into general circulation, but with a twist.

Each of the 2020-W quarter dollars is being struck with a privy mark that will appear on each coin’s obverse, in the field in front of George Washington’s portrait, above the inscription LIBERTY.

The privy mark is being sculpted directly into the master die.

The earliest strikes are test pieces that U.S. Mint officials refer to as “design validation strikes."

According to Todd Martin, the U.S. Mint’s acting chief of corporate communications, the privy mark will be designed with V75 to recognize the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Like the 2019 production, the 2020 output from West Point will comprise 2 million of each of the year’s America the Beautiful quarter dollars. 

The five 2020 quarter dollars bear reverse designs celebrating the National Park of American Samoa, Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut, Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas.

The U.S. Mint said it is developing a comprehensive plan to more widely distribute the 2020-W quarter dollars beyond what was done with the 2019-W coins.

Distribution of the five 2019-W quarter dollars involved randomly salting the W quarter dollars in 140,000 coin bags containing Philadelphia Mint and Denver Mint coins, with no more than 1 percent of the total being West Point strikes.

The coins were then shipped to designated armored carriers contracted by the Federal Reserve to release coins into general circulation through participating banks and financial institutions.

The 2020-W quarter dollars are also intended to be mixed in with circulation quality production of quarter dollars from the Denver and Philadelphia Mints, but officials have not provided additional details about any difference in circulation plans for the 2020-W coins. 

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