Lori Chillingworth with Zion’s Bank gives us a preview.
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The 50 State Quarters program features commemorative coins by the United States Mint. Between 1999 and 2008, each of the 50 states will be represented with a unique design on the reverse of a quarter. The Utah state quarter will be released this week. Governor Huntsman will mark the occasion at a special ceremony Friday at the Rio Grande train depot.
As part of the State Quarter program, five new designs are released each year in the same order that the states joined the Union. Each quarter’s reverse celebrates one of the 50 states with a design honoring its unique history, traditions and symbols, usually designed by a resident of that state and chosen by the state government.
The statehood quarters program has become one of the most popular commemorative coin programs in United States history. The United States Mint has estimated that more than one hundred million individuals have collected state quarters, either formally or informally.
Utah’s quarter will be available in Zions Bank branches the week of Nov. 5th.
The design on the Utah quarter features an important event in Utah history. On May 10, 1869, two steam locomotives met at Promontory, Utah, for the “Joining of the Rails Ceremony,” at which the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads completed the transcontinental route. The event was crucial to the development of the American West because it made cross-country travel more convenient and economical. The construction of the railroad, and the subsequent mining boom, brought diverse ethnic and religious populations to Utah. The railroad also symbolized the changing technology, and moved Utah from an agrarian economy to a more industrialized one.
The reverse of Utah’s quarter features two locomotives moving toward the golden spike that joined the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads with the inscription “Crossroads of the West.” The coin also bears the inscriptions “Utah” and “1896.”
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Utah Quarter State Quarter Celebration: Transportation
Past and Present
Friday, November 9
Rio Grande Depot Partico
300 West 500 South
Salt Lake City
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
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