Great Basin America the Beautiful Quarter

The third of five new quarters that are part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program for 2013 will be the 2013 Great Basin America the Beautiful Quarter. The program started in 2010 and features 56 total coins, with this Great Basin quarter being number eighteen.

The coin is anticipated to be released into circulation in the summer of 2013 but the final design for it will not be known for sometime. The US Mint should be submitting design candidates to the two bodies charged with reviewing them (the Citizen’s Coinage Advisory Committee and the United States Commission of Fine Arts) in early 2012. Their recommendations, along with the recommendations of other interested parties, will be forwarded to the Treasury Secretary who will make the final selection.

As the third quarter issued that year, it will actually be preceded in the program by the New Hampshire White Mountain National Forest Quarter and the Ohio Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial Quarter. Following it will be the Maryland Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine Quarter and the South Dakota Mount Rushmore National Memorial Quarter.

Great Basin National Park in Nevada

Consisting of 77,000 acres in Nevada, Great Basin National Park is located about 290 miles north of Las Vegas and unfortunately sees less than 100,000 visitors annually.

One of the best known features of the park, its limestone caverns, was also the reason for its initial federal protection when the Lehman Caves National Monument was created in 1922. They are named after the individual who is thought to have discovered the caves in 1885, Absalom Lehman.

Despite its desert climate, hundreds of species of flora and fauna are present within the park boundaries including jackrabbits, ground squirrels, mountain lions, bobcats and mule-deer. Some of this diverse collection is due to the varied elevation seen within the park ranging almost 8,000 feet from the valley floor to Wheeler Peak, the highest point within the park.

Great Basin also contains groves of ancient bristlecone pines that are estimated to be over 5,000 years old.

Due to its remote location, it has proven to be one of the best areas for night-time sky viewing. This is because very little man-made light is created in the region making it one of the darkest spots at night in the national park system.