South Dakota State Quarter Launched At Mount Rushmore
MOUNT RUSHMORE, SOUTH DAKOTA - With the monumental faces of four of the Nation's former Presidents towering in the background, United States Mint Director Edmund C. Moy joined Governor M. Michael Rounds, South Dakota First Lady Jean Rounds and Rapid City Mayor Jim Shaw to launch the South Dakota commemorative quarter-dollar in a ceremony at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Amphitheater. Native drum group Star Nation performed an honor song during the ceremony.
"I can't imagine a more dramatic backdrop than this classic tribute to four of the greatest leaders of our democracy," said Director Moy.
The South Dakota quarter is the final coin of 2006, and the 40th to be introduced in the United States Mint's 50 State Quarters Program. The reverse (tail side) of the coin features an image of Mount Rushmore with the State bird, the Chinese ring-necked pheasant, soaring overhead. The famous monument depicts the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved in granite. The coin's reverse also bears the inscriptions "South Dakota" and "1889" bordered by heads of wheat. On November 2, 1889, South Dakota became the 40th state to be admitted into the Union.
Following the ceremony, Director Moy, the Governor, First Lady, Mayor Shaw and Mount Rushmore National Memorial Superintendent Gerard Baker handed out shiny, new South Dakota quarters to the children in the crowd. Adults lined up to exchange their bills for $10 rolls of South Dakota quarters.