Last year, 2019, we saw a banner year of product releases from the United States Mint. Low mintages, first-evers, and brand new designs of coins and medals riddled the coin hobby. One of those first-evers was the release of 2019-W Quarters Dollars with the “W” mintmark on the obverse representing West Point. They were released into circulation, 10 million to be exact, among other circulated quarters dollars from both Philadelphia and Denver during National Coin Week to promote the Great American Coin Hunt.
Following suit this year, the Mint has once again decided to release 2020-W Quarter Dollars into circulation except for this year, there is a twist. In conjunction with the 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War, they have decided to add a special privy mark to the left of George Washington’s profile recognizing such a momentous point in history. The privy mark will read “V75” and has been sculpted directly into the master die for production.
Two million each of the five total designs for this year will be released with the first two having already been released on April 6th, American Samoa and Weir Farm. According to the Mint, the original plan was to just release the design featuring the Weir Farm National Historic Site quarter via the Federal Reserve into circulation. Since then, it has been confirmed by U.S. Mint officials that the American Samoa design was also released. One million of each design were sent to both the Philadelphia and Denver Mints to be mixed into bulk bags for release and sold to coin dealers. The Mint believes it will take up to four to six weeks for those coins to be seen in circulation.
The releases for the remaining three designs are at this time still scheduled for later in the year. The Salt Bay River National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve are set for June 1st, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park set for August 31st, and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is set for November 16th.
