Blogtrek

Maine Outlapped

One of the best things that has happened to our currency is the 50-state quarter program. It started in 1999. Every 1/5 of a year (about 73 days) a new quarter is minted commemorating another state. It started in early 1999 with the Delaware coin, which featured Cesar Rodney on a horse. Since then I have been collecting several sets of the coins as they came out. Some of the coins came fast and furious; for example, Virginia, while others were really slow in coming, such as South Carolina. Earlier in the year, I found the Alabama coin, which features Helen Keller and an inscription in Braille. The next two coins after that were Maine and Missouri. I waited for the Maine coin to come out. It would not. I kept getting quarter after quarter, getting mostly eagles with a few Connecticuts, North Carolina, Mississippis and New Hampshires and so forth, but never any Maine. I have been trying to buy things whose price end in a .05 to .25, so that I would get three quarters in change, but today when I tried that twice I got six eagles.

I therefore declared Quarter War and went out in an all out effort to get the Maines. Mid-August has already passed, so therefore the next coin to come out, Missouri, started getting minted. Up to today, I still have not seen a single Maine quarter. Then my wife came home with two coins she showed me. They were Missouri quarters! The first ones to come out. Maine has been outlapped by Missouri. It is the first coin not to come out before the coin after it. So now I have two Missouri quarters, and still no Maine quarter. I wonder what happened to it.

Next week if I still don't have a Maine quarter, I will go to the bank and ask for some. If that does not work, I will order some rolls of Maine quarters from the US Mint and that will settle it. Oh where oh where is Maine? Remember the Maine!