America the Beautiful® National Parks 5 Piece Quarter Illinois

This set of 5 quarters commemorate America's national parks with unique reverse designs and a variety of finishes. In 2010, the United States Mint began a 56 quarter program featuring designs depicting national parks and other national sites as part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program. Quarters will be issued in the order that they were first established as a national site. The program expected to continue through 2022. Included are: Brilliant Uncirculated coins (1 each from P- and D-Mint) 24K gold plated coin (Random Mint) Colorized coin (Random Mint) Hologrammed coin (Random Mint)

The Shawnee National Forest hosts the most acreage of any natural area in the state of Illinois. Its large, public open spaces offer many recreation opportunities including big-game hunting, long-distance pedestrian and equestrian trails, orienteering, bird watching, rock-climbing, beach recreation, and two National Scenic Byways: the Ohio River and the Great River Road. The forest also has some of the largest and most diverse blocks of mature hardwoods and forest interior habitats of national forests. An abundance of wetlands, floodplains and riparian areas enhances water quality and provides important wetland habitats for migrating waterfowl in the Mississippi flyway. It was established as a national site in 1939.