New quarter honors Great Basin National Park

Coming soon to slot machines, parking meters and couch cushions everywhere: A shiny new advertisement for Nevada’s only national park.

The U.S. Mint has unveiled a special quarter commemorating Great Basin National Park, 300 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The coin is the 18th and newest release in the Mint’s “America the Beautiful” series, which will highlight 56 special places — one in every state and U.S. territory — between now and 2021.

The series launched in 2010 with coins commemorating the nation’s oldest and most iconic parks: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.

Great Basin Superintendent Steve Mietz expects the new quarter to boost visitation at what is one of the least visited Park Service sites in the nation.

“I certainly assume that it will,” he said. “We’re very excited.”

Last year, the 77,000-acre mountain park in White Pine County attracted 94,850 visitors, its highest total ever. That’s less than one-third as many visitors as Lake Mead National Recreation Area saw during Memorial Day Weekend alone.

The new quarter features the familiar profile of George Washington on one side and a detailed engraving of a bristlecone pine on the other.

The ancient trees are a signature feature of the park. Several bristlecones along the flanks of Wheeler Peak, Nevada’s second tallest mountain, are approaching 5,000 years old.

“This is such a special park, so unique within the country,” Mietz said.

The Great Basin quarter officially entered circulation early this month when the U.S. Mint began delivering it to the Federal Reserve to fill orders from banks and other financial institutions.

Last week, officials from the Mint and the Park Service gathered at the park’s main visitor center in the town of Baker to celebrate the launch of the quarter.

There were speeches about the coin and the park, and Mietz took part in a ceremonial “first pour” of newly minted coins into an American Indian basket. The event drew about 200 people.

After the event was over, park and mint staff members handed out about 10 bucks worth of Great Basin quarters to children in the audience, while the grown-ups, some of them collectors, lined up to buy coins by the roll.

Mietz said there are “definitely some intense people” in the world of serious coin collecting. One man traveled roughly 600 miles from his home in San Diego to attend the ceremony and scoop up some uncirculated Great Basin quarters.

Purchases were limited to $100 per person, so Mietz and his wife teamed up to buy $200 worth of the coins to give to friends and family. “We have a box of quarters in our house,” he said with a laugh.

A set of first-run coins from the mints in Denver and Philadelphia will be placed on display at the Great Basin visitor center.

As for when the coins might turn up at local banks or in your change, “it’s tough to say,” said Mike White, spokesman for the U.S. Mint. “It takes a while for them to work their way into circulation.”

If you can’t wait until then, the Mint will happily sell you Great Basin quarters in various combinations, from a special, three-coin commemorative set for $9.95 to a $50,000 bulk bag that contains 200,000 coins and weighs more than a Fiat 500 sports car.

“We’re hoping the casinos in Vegas buy them up and use them in their machines,” Mietz said.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.