Peaks on US State Quarters

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List Description

Since 1999, the U.S. Mint has been releasing a special series of 25-cent coins, with the traditional eagle design on the reverse replaced by individual deisgns selected by each of the 50 states. A number of states have selected designs that feature mountains.

• The Colorado quarter's mountains were supposedly generic, but later found to be based on a photo of Longs and Pagoda Peaks.
• Washington State's quarter shows Rainier and it's subpeak of Little Tahoma.
• Oregon's view of Crater Lake features three identifiable peaks along the crater rim.
• Even though the "Old Man of the Mountains" rock profile crumbled in 2003, the coin is still showing Cannon Mountain.
• You can barely see Camels Hump on the left side of Vermont's design.
• Even the Midwest has a quarter showing a famous peak, Nebraska's Chimney Rock.

There are mountains on the quarters for other states, but are they not based on actual peaks:

• Nevada's design is supposed to be showing horses running out from the Sierra Nevada at sunrise, but that would make the location on the coin likely to be in California.
• Arizona's quarter shows summits inside the Grand Canyon, but the artist confirms the view is an "artist's conception consisting of a combination of three different views along with some artistic license."
• The mountains on the Montana and Utah quarters are apparently entirely generic.

As near as I can tell, climbing is prohibited at Chimney Rock, Nebraska. So this list is almost impossible to complete. The remaining peaks are certainly all attainable, although some are fairly challenging.

A final note--in 2010 the U.S. Mint started producing a new series of "America the Beautiful" quarters, with each showing a scene from a notable National Park or other federal site in each of the 50 states. Any peaks shown on this series of coins, such as Mount Hood in Oregon, Mount Olympus in Washington, and El Capitan in California, are not on this list--Click here to see the separate list for that series.