White Mountain America the Beautiful Quarter

The first coin to appear in 2013 as part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program will be the 2013 White Mountain America the Beautiful Quarter. The coin will also be the sixteenth coin in the program which began in 2010.

Final design selections for the White Mountain coin will probably not be known by the public until late 2012. During the earlier part of that year, design candidates will be submitted by the US Mint to the Citizen’s Coinage Advisory Committee and the United States Commission of Fine Arts for their input. Their recommendations, along with commentary by the governor of New Hampshire and the Secretary of the Interior will be forwarded by the Mint to the Treasury Secretary who will make the final selection.

The White Mountain coins should appear in circulation in the first quarter of 2013.

As the first America the Beautiful quarter to be seen in 2013, it will be followed by four other coins that year. These include the Ohio Perry Victory and International Peace Memorial quarter, the Nevada Great Basin National Park quarter, the Maryland Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine quarter and the South Dakota Mount Rushmore National Memorial quarter.

White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire

White Mountain National Forest was initially established in 1918 and lies mostly in the state of New Hampshire (a small part of the forest is located in the state of Maine). The forest covers almost 800,000 acres or about 80% of the size of the state of Rhode Island.

The forest lays claim to over 100 miles of the 2,000 mile plus scenic hiking path known as the Appalachian Trail, which starts in Maine and ends in Georgia. When in the White Mountain area, visitors are treated to a multitude of recreational activities in addition to hiking liking camping and skiing.

White Mountain also boasts proximity as a main feature claiming 60 million US residents are within a days drive of its borders. This results in the forest being one of the most visited in the nation with over 6 million enjoying its beauty annually.

Five federal wilderness areas are located within the park boundaries. This additional status provides a higher level of protection for those chosen sites by preventing most logging and commercial activities from occurring. They are, however, still open for recreational purposes.

Mount Washington, the highest peak north of the Smokey Mountains and east of the Mississippi is located within White Mountain National Forest.