Letter from Boston Collecting Quarters By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
特定のものを収集する趣味のない雅子さんですが、最近25セント硬貨のコレクションを始めました。これは、米政府が行なうプログラムのもとで1年に5州ずつ、合衆国に加わった順に発行される記念コインです。50州すべてのコインが発行されるのは7年後。収集用の専用地図も購入し、コレクター気分を味わっています。

I've never been very interested in collecting things like baseball cards, stamps, souvenir spoons from different countries or designer watches. This is still the case. I don't have too much living space, so I try not to buy things that are purely decorative. I also don't have much money, so I don't like paying a lot for things that aren't very useful to me.

That said, I have recently started collecting quarters. President Clinton signed the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act in 1997, stating that the U.S. Mint will issue commemorative quarters of each of the 50 states.

These quarters have started to circulate in 1999. Each quarter is minted for only 10 weeks, and then the quarters are left to circulate naturally.

It's not too difficult to collect these quarters. Since they are legal tender, it doesn't cost any additional money to collect them, and they are not too difficult to find.

Indeed, Congress has endorsed this act so that everyday Americans can take joy in collecting these interesting mementos "for the face value of these coins." I would say this a true collection, since the end goal is to collect the whole series.

One of the interesting things about the series is that each state quarter is issued in the order that the state became part of the United States. The Delaware quarter was the first one to be issued, and Hawaii will be the last one.

Ten quarters have been issued so far, and I have all of them. My home states of New Jersey and Massachusetts have already been minted. The most recent quarter that I've gotten is the Virginia quarter.

Each of the quarters has a distinctive design that evokes the image of that state. Some of the quarters have people on them, others state trees or fruits, others familiar state landmarks.

Although the U.S. definitely has some general national characteristics, one can witness a bit of the regional differences among the 50 states by looking at these designs. I think the pride of each of the states can be seen as well.

Even though the quarters are not rare, and they don't have any monetary value besides the face value of 25 cents, I find that I really want to have them all. I have even gotten a collector's map so that I can keep all of them in the same place. I bought the map on sale for $3 (¥360).

I suspect the maps were initially being sold for about $15 (¥1,790), but that they did not sell very well. It looks rather official and impressive on the package, but in reality is just a cheap cardboard map with holes cut out in the middle of each state. One is supposed to fit the state quarters into the corresponding holes on the map. All 10 quarters that I have now are on the East Coast.

Getting these 10 quarters on my map has not been entirely smooth. I have definitely gotten each of the quarters numerous times while doing my day-to-day shopping, but just as easily, I've used those quarters to buy snacks from a vending machine or to do my laundry.

Since these quarters circulate in public, the older ones tend to disappear. In order to get the New Jersey quarter on my map, a friend of mine spent 20 minutes sifting through his large jar of change. After he listened to my reasons for wanting all the quarters, I think he got hooked on the idea of collecting them, too.

I look forward to seeing the horizon of quarters move across the continent to the West Coast. Since I've grown up on the East Coast, it'll be interesting to examine the designs on the back of the quarters of the states I've hardly heard of, much less visited.

The collection will be complete in the year 2008. I will be 34. I know I'll be out of school by then, but I don't know what kind of job I'll have. Perhaps I'll be living by myself in the city, perhaps I'll be married with kids in the suburbs.

Undoubtedly, I will still have the same cheap cardboard collector's map, and it will be filled. The collection will only have a monetary value of $12.50 (¥1,490) in the end, but the 10 years that went into it will make it truly priceless.

Shukan ST: Jan. 26, 2001

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