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The first quarter released in 2005 honors California, and is the 31st in
the United States Mint's 50 State Quarters® Program. California was admitted
into the Union on September 9, 1850, becoming our Nation’s 31st State. Nicknamed
the "Golden State," California’s quarter depicts naturalist and conservationist
John Muir admiring Yosemite Valley’s monolithic granite headwall known as "Half
Dome" and also contains a soaring California condor. The coin bears the
inscriptions "California," "John Muir," "Yosemite Valley" and "1850."
In 1849, the year before California gained statehood, the family of
11-year-old John Muir emigrated from Scotland to the United States, settling in
Wisconsin. In 1868, at the age of 30, Muir sailed up the West Coast and landed
in San Francisco. He made his home in the Yosemite Valley, describing the Sierra
Nevada Mountains as "the Range of Light… the most divinely beautiful of all the
mountain chains I have seen." He devoted the rest of his life to the
conservation of natural beauty, publishing more than 300 articles and 10 books
that expanded his naturalist philosophy.
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The California quarter depicts naturalist and
conservationist John Muir admiring Yosemite Valley’s monolithic granite headwall
known as Half Dome with a soaring California condor..
United States Mint image |
In 1890, Congress established Yosemite National Park, and in 1892 John Muir
helped form the Sierra Club to protect it, serving as that organization’s
President until his death in 1914.
The California condor, with a wingspan as long as nine feet, is also featured on
the coin in a tribute to the successful repopulation of the once nearly extinct
bird.
The 20-member California State Quarter Commission was formed to solicit design
concepts from California citizens and to review all submissions. The Commission
forwarded 20 design concepts to Governor Gray Davis’s office for further
consideration. From these, five were chosen as finalists and sent for final
review to the United States Mint. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger chose the final
selection from this group of five. The four other design concepts considered
included "Waves and Sun," "Gold Miner," "Golden Gate Bridge," and the "Giant
Sequoia" design. The Department of Treasury approved the "John Muir/Yosemite
Valley" design on April 15, 2004.
Purchase a
California State Quarter
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