Celebrating a national site in Idaho, the United States Mint today released a three-coin set of collector-grade quarters bearing reverse designs emblematic of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
The national wilderness was established in 1980 and takes its name from two sources, Senator Frank Church who was instrumental in the establishment of the protected area, and the wilderness’s Main Salmon River which was long ago given the nickname "river of no return."
The set’s quarters are produced at three different U.S. Mint facilities in two unique finishes. There is:
- one 2019-P uncirculated quarter from the Philadelphia Mint
- one 2019-D uncirculated quarter from the Denver Mint, and
- one 2019-S proof quarter from the San Francisco Mint.
U.S. Mint AIP Artist Emily Damstra created the quarters’ reverse design which shows a piloted drift boat on a rushing river with surrounding rocks and trees. Encircling the design are inscriptions of "RIVER OF NO RETURN," "WILDERNESS," "IDAHO," "2019," and "E PLURIBUS UNUM." The Mint’s Renata Gordon executed the sculpting.
This three-coin set follows regular circulating Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness quarters released Nov. 4 within U.S. Mint-branded bags and rolls. The coin itself is issued as the final 2019-dated quarter from the Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters® Program.
All coins of the program share the same obverse design, a restored 1932 portrait of George Washington by sculptor John Flanagan. Obverse inscriptions read "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," "LIBERTY," "IN GOD WE TRUST," and "QUARTER DOLLAR."
Also found on the obverse is a mintmark indicating each coin’s facility of production — a "P" for Philadelphia, a "D" for Denver and an "S" for San Francisco.
The set’s three quarters are held within durable plastic card that bears an image of the wilderness on its front and a U.S. Mint Certificate of Authenticity on its back.
Ordering
2019 Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Quarter Three-Coin Sets may be ordered directly from the United Sates Mint via this link to its America the Beautiful related products. Orders may also be placed by calling 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468).
Priced at $9.95, the set has no mintage, product or household order limits.
So I went to purchase the 5oz PUC of the Wilderness coin just now (11-26-19) and the Mint site states this coin is unavailable. It’s SOLD OUT!?
Whats the deal with this? These coins don’t sell out, in fact the sales figures on these have been dropping steadily.
Any ideas anyone?
Maybe some big dealer schmuk bought out the lot to drive up resales!?
I’m quite pissed about this. I have been looking forward to the completion of this series and now this coin sells out? WTF
Ridiculous!
Probably another inside job by mint employees or contractors – just like the S mint enhanced reverse proof ASE.
I just checked EBAY site to see if it was flooded with resales of these and from who, but I only found a couple listings.
So I can’t figure out what is going on here.
I’m disgusted with this.
I’m guessing that since sales of these are trending down the Mint lowered the initial production to 10K or so – and the subscribers sucked most of them up on the initial day of issue.
You should have Enrolled to the ATB program.
I used to do the enroll, but since the coins never sell out I dropped it .
Wow I was just reading the comments and checked to see if the 5oz. ATB coin was available and I have not seen this happen so fast. I bought 2 with my subscription and I received them several days ago. I think the population of the state might be taking into consideration. However I am pretty sure it will be available at some point soon. I hope that the people who want one can get it. Another factor is the demand for the bullion version too. I think maximum is 100,000 between both. If anyone knows if that is true… Read more »
These FC 5 oz coins are available again
as of this morning. The Mint just had to restock the warehouse. The mintage this year of each coin is supposed to be a mintage limit of 20,000 “P” vapor-blast finish coins.
Happy collecting everyone!
NumisdudeTX
Anyone know, why no sales report from mint since 11/3/2019?
Still waiting on Mike Mezacks returns to update???? Understand!!!! lol
I dont get this program or the reason people are even buying them? The 2 most important Quarters that will ever be worth anything, aren’t even in this set! The business strike S & the W.
It’s called coin collecting, Numismatics…. Not everybody buys them for investment ………it’s a hobby
LOL!! Anybody buying coins for investment is a fool. If you want to pay $14.90 for 3 Quarters, 5 times per year. That equals $74.50! You could easily just purchase the Proof set & mint set, get everything cheaper and a lot more coins.