Rollin' in the coin

Well, the year has finally come - my home state of Washington is having it's state quarter released. How do I plan on celebrating? Well, for awhile I toyed around with the idea of purchasing a few rolls of them and handing them out like a proud new father hands out cigars, but I decided that would be silly. So, instead I'm encouraging you all to find this fine piece of coinage let it grace your pocket/ears/neck/grill/whatever. The bad part is that it won't be out until April (neither will this), so here's a peek at what you all should be anxiously looking out for:



I actually have collected coins my entire life, and I would be lying if I said I'm not a little bit excited by this.

In other news, Wyoming's quarter is coming out soon as well. Now I don't really have much of a connection to Wyoming (other than living near it for several years), but I think I've seen their quarter somewhere before...

I guess the Wyoming football team has a lot of sway (they even got on the license plates). OK, so there is a reason why they are doing this (see this), but I would have loved to see the Tetons or Old Faithful, because frankly, I'm getting sick of this cowboy.

In other coin-related news, with the end of the state quarter program looming over the US Mint like, well... something large over something much smaller, they have decided to start the "Really Bad-Looking Presidential Quarters Program." Apparently we had a lot of ugly presidents. I can't wait until Nixon. I have to admit that, in the wake of the hugely sucessful Sacagawea coin (boy, don't we all love getting those!), that the switch is surprising. But, there are some cool features of these coins - the reverse is pretty cool



and the edges are cool.

I actually saw this done on some Mexican Pesos back in 2000. Sound economic advice from our southern neighbors.

Well, before I go, I have an offer to make. Since I do collect these things (mainly the state quarters), I'm always on the lookout for missing pieces of my collection. So, if you really care (which I'm guessing you don't, but if you do), here's a list of quarters that I'm missing:

Minnesota
Colorado
North Dakota
Montana

So, if you find any of these, I'm willing to trade you for a nice, shiny quarter and a big hunk of my love. Good deal, huh?