State quarters series approaches its 20th anniversary
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Robin Durila of Claysville with her collection of state quarters
Robin Durila of Claysville displays her collection of state quarters.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Larry Serenari Sr., owner of the Silver Mine, displays Pennsylvania state quarters at his business in Washington Thursday.
Larry Serenari Sr., owner of the Silver Mine, looks through coins at his business in Washington on Thursday.
When the 50 State Quarters Program launched nearly 20 years ago, honoring each of the states in the order they ratified the Constitution or were admitted to the Union, Robin Durila of Claysville thought it might be fun to collect them for her two children.
She didn’t stop at two sets.
Durila has completed 17 sets since 1999, and she plans, at some point, to finish three incomplete sets she started to build.
“In a nutshell, it started out being something that I thought would be nice for my kids, and it snowballed,” said Durila.
She was not alone.
The state quarters program was the most successful collectors series in U.S. Mint history; an estimated 147 million Americans have collected the coins.
That’s the equivalent of at least one person from every household in America.
“It was extremely popular. Everybody was collecting them,” said Larry Serenari Sr., owner of the Silver Mine, a hobby shop in South Strabane Township that carries uncirculated state quarters. “People still look for them to finish building sets. There’s a series in progress now, (America the Beautiful Quarters), and it’s nowhere near as popular.”
The coins were produced for circulation by U.S. Mint facilities in Philadelphia and Denver, and Durila collected only those issued by the Philadelphia facility.
For under $15, aspiring numismatists could complete a set.
But, said Serenari, don’t be disappointed to discover most of your state quarters aren’t worth more than face value.
Over the course of the series – during which the Mint released a new coin about every 10 weeks – more than 34 billion state quarters were produced.
“There were so many in circulation. People who built their sets from change in their pockets will find they’re worth 25 cents. They won’t appreciate in value. Uncirculated quarters, ones that haven’t been used, are worth more,” said Serenari.
Linda Neill of Eighty-Four said her husband, Curt, and her mother, the late Bertha Campbell, both collected the coins.
“It was just a real good bonding thing between them. My mother would go to PNC and get the quarters before they went into circulation, and she’d come home and they’d put them into their maps,” said Neill. “You never spent a quarter without checking out the back of it.”
Paul Ciotti of Minersville collected nine sets of state quarters over the course of the series, one for each of his grandchildren. Ciotti presented the grandkids with the complete sets for Christmas when the series concluded.
“As the coins came out, I went to the bank and bought rolls of quarters from each state. I enjoyed collecting them,” said Ciotti, who also collects other coin series.
The state quarters series also has been used as a teaching tool in history and geography education. Over the years, teachers and parents have downloaded about 6 million lesson plans related to the program. Ciotti said one of his daughters, who is a schoolteacher, borrowed one of the sets and used it in the classroom during a unit on money.
Durila has given most of her sets away – to her children, nieces and nephews – and is saving some for future grandchildren.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Durila. “I almost became addicted to it because it was like a game to me. It was a challenge to get the coins. The complete sets that I have are sitting in my house, waiting for the grandchildren that hopefully I’ll have some day.”