Great Smoky Mountains America the Beautiful Quarter

The first United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program coin for 2014 will be the 2014 Great Smoky Mountains America the Beautiful Quarter. It also marks the twenty-first coin out of 56 new strikes of the program which began in 2010 and goes until 2021.

All of the 2014 America the Beautiful Quarter designs will not be known for some time. If the Mint follows standard procedure, the public should get their first glimpse of possible design candidates in the first part of 2013. At that time, the Citizen’s Coinage Advisory Committee and the United States Commission of Fine Arts will review those candidates and make their recommendations. The chief executive of each host location along with the Secretary of the Interior will also provide some input before the Mint asks the Treasury Secretary for his or her decision which will be final.

The Great Smoky Mountains Quarter is the first coin to be released in the program for 2014. It will be followed by four other issues that year including ones honoring the Shenandoah National Park of Virginia, Arches National Park of Utah, Great Sand Dunes National Park of Colorado and Everglades National Park of Florida.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee

Located in Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is said to be the most visited park in the nation with approximately 9 million annual visitors. This number is over twice the amount shown visiting any other national park

Elevation in the park ranges from 800 feet to over 6,000 feet making the 800 miles of mountain trails in the park both challenging and rewarding. Visitors do need to take precautions for changing weather and the wildlife (an estimated 1500 bears reside within the park boundaries).

The location was added to the national park system in 1934 through the generous $5 million contribution of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Bird watchers enjoy the park for the wide variety of breeds they can find within its boundaries. Estimates show that more than 240 species have been spotted within the park. 120 of those species actually breed in the area, 52 of them from the neo-tropics. The rest just use the location as a stop-over during migrations.

Unfortunately, the park also has the distinction of being one of the most air polluted parks in the nation. In a four year period, 150 days of unhealthy air were recorded and a veil of smog is not uncommon.