2009 Guam Quarter

Following the conclusion of the 50 State Quarters Program, a second one year follow up series was authorized known as The District of Columbia and United States Territories Quarter Program. This separate program featured six additional quarters with designs representing the six U.S. jurisdictions which are not classified as states.

The authorizing legislation was signed on December 26, 2007 by President Bush under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-456).

At periodic intervals throughout the year 2009, the following coins were issued by the United States Mint:

The reverse designs for each quarter contained images emblematic or representative of each location. This included depictions of historical people related to the locations, important buildings, architectural elements, and wildlife. Several featured inscriptions in the native languages. The obverse of each quarter continued to utilize the image of George Washington designed by William Cousins after the original John Flanagan.

This series is notable for having significantly lower mintages levels than the previous State Quarters Program. No mechanism was put into place to ensure distribution in unmixed quantities throughout the country and the supply of quarter dollars remained plentiful at Federal Reserve Banks. As such, production levels were diminished and distribution became more fragmented. Each of the 2009 quarters have mintages which are at fraction of the levels of the previous series.

At the conclusion of the one year series, the United States Mint began another coin series featuring rotating designs known as the America the Beautiful Quarters. The program will include designs representing a total of 56 different National Parks or sites from each state, territory, and the District of Columbia. The entire trio of commemorative quarter dollar coin series will include 112 different designs, issued over the course of 23 years.