Yellowstone National Park Quarter
The second quarter in the America the Beautiful Quarters® series, my pick for Coin of the Month of June, honors Yellowstone National Park, located mostly in Wyoming. Now, you may wonder why the park known as "America's first national park" is the second quarter in the series, since the parks are presented in the order they were established. There's a good reason for that.
Yellowstone was established in 1872 as a national park, the first in the country and the world. Although Hot Springs National Park already existed since 1832, it was still known as Hot Springs Reservation, its original name, until 1921. So Hot Springs is an older national site, but Yellowstone is the first site called a national park from its beginning.
Yellowstone's quarter design features a geyser, an amazing natural wonder. It also features a bison, one of the many kinds of animals that live in the park. Now here's a question for you: does a bison have horns or antlers? What's the difference between them?
Well, Yellowstone's Web site has a sheet under "publications" (called "Horns or Antlers?") that explains.
Find out more about Yellowstone's animals and geology on the Yellowstone National Park quarter page.