Colorized America the Beautiful Silver Coins

Colorized ATB Silver Coins

The America the Beautiful coin program is one of the most popular commemorative bullion coin series produced by the United States Mint. These stunning coins have been a favorite of collectors and investors alike since 2010. Now, there is an all-new look coming to the Silver ATB Coin series that adds an additional value for collectors who enjoy stunning real-world colors on their precious metal products. Right now, Colorized Silver ATB Coins are available on Silver.com.

History of the America the Beautiful Coins

In order to understand the Colorized Silver ATB Coin, you need to go back to the 1990s to glimpse the initial demand for these coins. In 1997 the US Congress authorized production of the 50 State Quarters program by the United States Mint. From 1999 to 2008, the US mint released circulation quarters with new images on the reverse side of the 25-cent pieces representing each of the individual 50 states in America.

The state quarters program is hands down the most popular coin program in United States history, and helped launch interest in coin collecting among an entirely new generation of Americans. It is estimated that more than half of the US population collected these coins, either casually or as a serious endeavor, during its 10-year production cycle.

In addition to netting the federal government almost $3 billion, the coin series led directly to the release of a 2009 one-year program that featured the District of Columbia and the US Territories on 25-cent pieces. This was followed up one year later by the America the Beautiful bullion coin program.

Silver America the Beautiful Coins

In 2008, the US Congress authorized the production of a whole-new series of coins known as America the Beautiful quarters. These new coins were authorized with passage of the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008. The program authorized the United States Mint to produce a total of 56 coins, just like the state quarters program, featuring a unique reverse design for each coin. In total, all 50 US states would be represented, along with the District of Columbia, and the five overseas territories of the US (Guam, Northern Marian Islands, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico).

The program consists of a five-coin annual release schedule from the US Mint. Each year the mint will produce and release five new coins, with individual states/jurisdictions released in a staggered schedule throughout a given production year. Unveiled for the first time in 2010, the program is slated to run through 2021, with the Secretary of the Treasury holding the power to extend the program, if necessary, through 2033.

Differences from State Quarters

The all-new Silver ATB Coins share some design commonalities with the standard 25-cent piece in circulation in the United States. For example, the obverse design from the American quarter is used on the obverse of all Silver ATB coins, regardless of state or jurisdiction represented. President George Washington’s left-profile effigy is featured as designed in 1932 by John Flanagan. A staple of the US quarter since that time, Flanagan’s design is actually inspired by a 1786 bust of Washington created by sculptor William Cousins.

For the most part, the commonalities end there. First and foremost, Silver ATB Coins contain a total of five ounces of .999 fine silver. While they bear the same face value of $.25, the Silver ATB coins have a much higher fineness of silver and are five times the physical size of a standard circulation quarter.

Additionally, when it comes to the state quarters program, only three states in the Silver ATB Series are represented by the same landmark. Arizona, South Dakota, and California are all represented by their relevant national parks or landmarks (Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and Yosemite National Park, respectively), but the designs are brand new for the Silver ATB Series.

On top of that, each coin in the series features its own unique engravings on the reverse side. These engravings include the shared phrase “E Pluribus Unum,” but have differing engravings for the year of issue, the state of issue, and the representative park, forest, or landmark.

The site selection process for the Silver ATB coin was a collaborative effort on the part of the governor or chief executive of each jurisdiction, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of the Interior. Each chief executive was asked to submit one primary location and three alternate locations from their state or territory, in ranked order, for consideration by the US Mint and Secretary of the Treasury. Each location was judged by its relevance to the local population and US history as a whole.

Colorized Silver ATB Designs

For reach release dating back to the 2010 debut of the series, Emporium Hamburg has taken a small allotment of silver bullion coins and enhanced the visual brilliance of the reverse design fields with the use of colorized lacquer. This lacquer does nothing to diminish the beautiful silver content of the coins, but instead delivers a new viewpoint of the reverse design elements in real-world colors. Designs with a colorized finish include the following:

• 2010
  • Hot Springs National Park – Arkansas
  • Yellowstone National Park – Wyoming
  • Yosemite National Park – California
  • Grand Canyon National Park – Arizona
  • Mount Hood National Forest – Oregon
• 2011
  • Gettysburg National Military Park – Pennsylvania
  • Glacier National Park – Montana
  • Olympic National Park – Washington
  • Vicksburg National Military Park – Mississippi
  • Chickasaw National Recreation Area – Oklahoma
• 2012
  • El Yunque National Forest – Puerto Rico
  • Chaco Culture National Historical Park – New Mexico
  • Acadia National Park – Maine
  • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park – Hawaii
  • Denali National Park – Alaska
• 2013
  • White Mountain National Forest – New Hampshire
  • Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial – Ohio
  • Great Basin National Park – Nevada
  • Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine – Maryland
  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial – South Dakota
• 2014
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park – Tennessee
  • Shenandoah National Park – Virginia
  • Arches National Park – Utah
  • Great Sand Dunes National Park – Colorado
  • Everglades National Park – Florida
• 2015
  • Homestead National Monument of America – Nebraska
  • Kisatchie National Forest – Louisiana
  • Blue Ridge Parkway – North Carolina
  • Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge – Delaware
  • Saratoga National Historical Park – New York
• 2016
  • Shawnee National forest – Illinois
  • Cumberland Gap National Historical Park – Kentucky
  • Harpers Ferry National Historical Park – West Virginia
  • Theodore Roosevelt National Park – North Dakota
  • Fort Moultrie at Fort Sumter National Monument – South Carolina
• 2017
  • Effigy Mounds National Monument – Iowa
  • Frederick Douglass National Historical Site – Washington D.C.
  • Ozark National Scenic Riverways – Missouri
  • Ellis Island State of Liberty National Monument – New Jersey
  • George Rogers Clark National Historical Park – Indiana
• 2018
  • Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore – Michigan
  • Apostle Islands National Lakeshore – Wisconsin
  • Voyageurs National Park – Minnesota
  • Cumberland Island National Seashore – Georgia
  • Block Island National Wildlife Refuge – Rhode Island
• 2019
  • Lowell National Historical Park – Massachusetts
  • American Memorial Park – Northern Mariana Islands
  • War in the Pacific National Historical Park – Guam
  • San Antonio Missions National Historical Park – Texas
  • Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness – Idaho

Emporium Hamburg

The United States Mint does not colorize or gild its coins directly. The 2015 Colorized Silver ATB Coins available from Silver.com have been finished by Emporium Hamburg. The German private company has been operating as a coin dealer and market facilitator for more than 40 years, and added all colorization to these coins after purchase from the United States Mint.

Purchasing Colorized Silver ATB Coins on Silver.com

When you decide to invest in Colorized Silver ATB Coins on Silver.com, you have a variety of options to pay for your purchase. Silver.com accepts Visa and MasterCard credit/debit cards, as well as paper checks, bank wire transfers, and PayPal fund transfers. Paper checks offer the greatest maximum purchase and a 4% discount on your total purchase price, but come with six business day processing times. Bank wire and PayPal transfers are processed immediately, but have lower maximum purchase levels.

All shipments are delivered in discreet packaging and handled by either the United States Postal Service or UPS for delivery to your home. If your shipment is lost or damaged during shipping, Silver.com will work with the carrier to retrieve your package if possible. Short of that, Silver.com will initiate an insurance claim on your behalf to secure a refund of your purchase price. Silver.com offers a sliding scale for shipping, with all purchases exceeding $3,000 in total qualifying for free standard shipping and insurance.

If you have any questions for a Silver.com associate, there are many ways to reach us. You can call us on the phone at 888-989-7223, connect with us on the web through our live web chat feature, or submit your questions to us in an email.