Iowa historic site to be featured on quarter

Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES – A new honor for the Effigy Mounds National Monument is more than just pocket change for the northeast Iowa site.

Gov. Chet Culver announced Tuesday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner included the prehistoric Indian burial mounds in Allamakee and Clayton counties as part of the new U.S. Mint “America the Beautiful” quarters program.

The mint's new quarters Program is a 12-year initiative that was authorized last year.

The act directed mint officials to strike and issue 56 circulating quarters with reverse, or tails side, designs emblematic of a national park or other national site in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The quarters, which will feature the familiar “restored” 1932 portrait of George Washington on the heads -- or obverse – side, will be issued sequentially each year, beginning in 2010 through 2022, in the order in which the featured site was first established as a national park or site.

“Iowa's Effigy Mounds National Monument is more than just a park – it is a national treasure,” Culver said in a statement. “This picturesque northeast Iowa site helps tell the story of the earliest Americans and is a fascinating area to explore, learn, and discover. This is an honor for Effigy Mounds and our state as a whole.”

The Effigy Mounds National Monument is located near Marquette along the banks of the Mississippi and Yellow rivers. The 2,526-acre monument includes more than 200 mounds that were constructed by Native Americans thousands of years ago.

The complete National Site Registry, which lists all 56 sites to be honored under the U.S. Mint “America the Beautiful” quarters program in chronological order by year, will be available on Sept. 9 at the http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProgram/?action=siteRegister website.