2010 Mount Hood National Forest Silver Coin Recommendations

Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon is the fifth and final site to be commemorated in 2010 through the America the Beautiful Quarters Program and the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin Program.

These eleven year commemorative coin series will result in companion 56 circulating quarter-dollar and silver bullion coins with reverse designs emblematic of a selected site in each state, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The silver coins will be duplicates of each quarter, with the exception of size and edge. The 2010 Mount Hood National Forest Site Silver Bullion Coin will weigh in at five-ounces of .999 fine silver and have a diameter of three inches, which is double the size of early US coinage. The edge of the coin will be incused with the fineness and weight.

In preparation for next year’s minting, the US Mint created four design candidates. As per the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, these were submitted for review to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC), which was authorized by Congress in 2003 and consists of eleven members, and the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), which consists of seven members and has been around since 1910.

Of the four designs, both the CCAC and CFA preferred the candidate denoted as "OR-03."

"The Committee overwhelmingly prefers design 3, featuring a view of Mount Hood with Lost Lake in the foreground," the CCAC reported to Treasury Secretary Geithner who will make the ultimate selection. "Design 3 was lauded for the artistry of its imagery, and for the absence of design elements that would detract from the view of the mountain."

"The Commission recommended alternative #3 due to its superior composition and simplicity of elements," CFA Commission Secretary Thomas E. Luebke said in a report to US Mint Director Ed Moy.

This design is likely to be approved by the Treasury Secretary as well.

For more information on the final 2010 quarter-dollar release, or to view the other three coin design candidates, see Mount Hood National Forest Site Quarter.