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CONTACT:

Gary Tuma

Pennsylvania Office of the Governor

(717) 783-1116

 

Gettysburg National Military Park will be featured in the U.S. Mint’s new “America the Beautiful” quarters program, Gov. Edward G. Rendell said.

 

“Gettysburg National Military Park - the nation’s most visited Civil War battlefield – is deeply moving and yet extremely beautiful park and a true national and Pennsylvania treasure,” Rendell said. “It is truly an honor to have this richly historic site included in the U.S. Mint’s ‘America the Beautiful’ program.”

 

The program is a 12-year initiative authorized by the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008. The act directs the U.S. Mint to strike and issue 56 circulating quarters with reverse (tails side) designs emblematic of a national park or other national site in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories - Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

 

Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner approved the list of sites recommended by the U.S. Mint after consultation with Governor Rendell and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

 

The quarters will be issued sequentially each year, in the order in which the featured site was first established as a national park or site. The coins’ heads will feature the restored 1932 portrait of George Washington, including subtle details and the beauty of the original model.

 

The complete National Site Registry, which lists all 56 sites to be honored under the U.S. Mint's America the Beautiful Quarters Program in chronological order by year, is available at    www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProgram/?action=siteRegister.                                                 

 

For more information about the United States Mint “America the Beautiful”Quarters Program, visit www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProgram/index.cfm.

 

The Union Army’s victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was a turning point in the Civil War. It was the war’s bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties. President Lincoln delivered his famed Gettysburg Address while dedicating the battlefield cemetery in November 1863.

 

Covering 6,000 acres, Gettysburg National Military Park was established in 1895 and is now administered by the National Park Service. It features more than 1,300 markers, memorials and monuments. The park and related attractions draw an estimated 3 million visitors annually.

 

The Rendell administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses. To find out more about Governor Rendell’s initiatives and to sign up for his weekly newsletter, www.governor.state.pa.us.