US Coins

Mint striking Proof 2016-S America the Beautiful quarter dollars

By Paul Gilkes

Published: Nov 10, 2015, 11 AM

Proof 2016-S Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument) quarter dollar is illustrated against an image of Fort Moultrie as it looked in 1861.

Coin image courtesy of U.S. Mint; Fort Moultrie image from 1861 courtesy of Tulane University.

Sergeant William Jasper from the 2nd South Carolina Regiment is shown returning the regimental flag to the ramparts while under attack from a British ship at Fort Moultrie during the Revolutionary War on the Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument) quarter dollar.

Images courtesy of U.S. Mint.

The Shawnee National Forest quarter dollar for 2016 shows a close view of Camel Rock with natural vegetation in the foreground and a red-tailed hawk soaring in the sky overhead.

Images courtesy of U.S. Mint.

The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park quarter dollar for Kentucky depicts a frontiersman gazing across the mountains to the West.

Images courtesy of U.S. Mint.

John Brown Fort, the site of John Brown’s last stand during his raid on the Harper’s Ferry Armory, is featured on the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park quarter dollar.

Images courtesy of U.S. Mint.

Theodore Roosevelt overlooks the Little Missouri River in North Dakota on the reverse of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park quarter dollar.

Images courtesy of U.S. Mint.s

The coinage presses at the San Francisco Mint have been hard at work since the beginning of September striking Proof 2016-S America the Beautiful quarter dollars.

U.S. Mint spokesman Michael White said by email Nov. 9 that the San Francisco Mint began striking the five Proof 2016-S copper-nickel clad quarters on Sept. 8. Production of the Proof 2016-S .900 fine silver quarter dollars began on Sept. 24, according to White.

The base metal quarter dollars are struck on planchets composed of outer layers of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel bonded to a core of pure copper. The 90 percent silver coins are alloyed with 10 percent copper.

The copper-nickel clad quarter dollars are to be incorporated into the five-coin 2016 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof set and the 14-coin 2016 Proof set.

The silver quarters are to be offered in the five-coin 2016 America the Beautiful Silver Quarters Proof set, the 14-coin 2016 Silver Proof set and the eight-coin 2016 Limited-Edition Silver Proof set, if that set is offered.

Pricing information and release dates are yet to be announced for each set.

The quarter dollars bear reverse designs reflecting Shawnee National Forest in Illinois; Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Kentucky; Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia; Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota; and Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument) in South Carolina.