OCTOBER 14
2005•West Virginia State Quarter
2008•Stephanie Tubbs Jones Medal Act
West Virginia’s State Quarter Celebrates the New River Gorge Bridge
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On October 14, 2005, the United States Mint officially launched the West Virginia State Quarter, placing the New River Gorge Bridge—one of the state’s most recognizable engineering landmarks—on millions of circulating coins.
The quarter was the 35th release in the 50 State Quarters Program, matching West Virginia’s position as the 35th state admitted to the Union. It was also the fifth and final state quarter of 2005.
Its reverse joined two defining features of West Virginia in a single scene: the rugged New River Gorge and the enormous steel-arch bridge spanning it. The result celebrated both the state’s natural landscape and the engineering required to conquer one of its most difficult transportation barriers.
A State Quarter Launch in Charleston
The Mint held the official launch on the steps of the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston.
Acting United States Mint Director David A. Lebryk joined Governor Joe Manchin III for the ceremony.
Actors portraying Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln participated in the event, an appropriate historical reference because West Virginia entered the Union during Lincoln’s presidency in the middle of the Civil War.
Children received new quarters, while adults could exchange currency for $10 rolls of the newly released coins.
Governor Manchin proclaimed October 14, 2005 “State Quarter Day in the Classroom.”
The Mint promoted educational lesson plans connected to the new coin.
That educational emphasis was a hallmark of the 50 State Quarters era.
The coins were intended not only to circulate but also to encourage Americans—especially children—to learn about state history, geography, culture, and symbols.
The 35th State and the 35th Quarter
West Virginia entered the Union on June 20, 1863.
It became the 35th state.
The 50 State Quarters Program released designs in the order states ratified the Constitution or entered the Union.
That made West Virginia the 35th quarter in the series.
The numerical match gave the release a particularly tidy place in the program’s chronology.
West Virginia’s admission was unlike that of most states.
When Virginia seceded from the Union during the Civil War, delegates from western counties rejected secession and established a Unionist government.
The complicated constitutional and political process ultimately produced the new state of West Virginia.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the statehood legislation, and West Virginia formally entered the Union in 1863.
The date 1863 appears on the quarter’s reverse beneath the state name.
The coin’s landscape is centered on the New River Gorge in southern West Virginia.
The New River cuts deeply through the Appalachian Plateau, creating steep terrain that is spectacular to view but historically difficult to cross.
The river itself is geologically ancient despite its name.
The gorge became associated with coal mining, railroads, communities, outdoor recreation, and some of the state’s most dramatic scenery.
Before the New River Gorge Bridge opened, crossing the gorge by road could be a slow undertaking.
Motorists followed winding mountain roads down into the gorge, crossed near river level, and climbed back out.
The route could take about 40 minutes.
For local residents and travelers, the gorge was not merely scenic—it was a major transportation obstacle.
A direct bridge high above the river promised to transform travel through the region.
Building Across the Gorge
Construction of the New River Gorge Bridge began in the 1970s.
The site presented formidable engineering challenges.
The bridge had to span an enormous distance across a deep gorge while minimizing the need for supports rising from the difficult terrain below.
The solution was a massive steel arch.
Its sweeping form turned a practical transportation project into an architectural landmark.
The New River Gorge Bridge was completed on October 22, 1977.
Its effect on travel was immediate.
The old winding crossing that could consume roughly 40 minutes was reduced to less than a minute.
The bridge became part of U.S. Route 19 and dramatically improved north-south transportation through the area.
It also became one of West Virginia’s defining visual symbols.
At the time of the 2005 quarter launch, the Mint described the bridge as 3,030 feet long with a 1,700-foot arch.
The roadway stands about 876 feet above the river.
The immense scale is difficult to appreciate from photographs alone.
The arch spans nearly a third of a mile, while the deck crosses the gorge at a height comparable to a major skyscraper.
It is a structure designed by necessity on a monumental scale.
In its 2005 release materials, the United States Mint identified the New River Gorge Bridge as the longest steel-arch bridge in the country.
That status made it an obvious candidate for a quarter celebrating West Virginia innovation and identity.
The bridge was not simply a scenic object.
It represented a major engineering solution to the state’s rugged topography.
Acting Mint Director Lebryk called it symbolic of the ingenuity and strength of West Virginians.
Choosing West Virginia’s Design
Like other states in the quarter program, West Virginia participated in a design-selection process that considered multiple concepts.
The goal was to find imagery that would represent the state clearly within the small circular space of a quarter.
The New River Gorge Bridge offered several advantages.
It was immediately associated with West Virginia, visually dramatic, and capable of representing both natural beauty and human achievement.
United States Mint sculptor-engraver John Mercanti designed and sculpted the final reverse.
Mercanti would later become Chief Engraver of the United States Mint and one of the most prolific coin and medal designers in American numismatic history.
For West Virginia, he depicted the bridge crossing the gorge with the New River below.
The design had to communicate the enormous scale of the real bridge on a coin less than an inch in diameter.
WEST VIRGINIA appears prominently across the top.
The statehood year 1863 is included beneath it.
NEW RIVER GORGE identifies the scene.
The year 2005 and national motto E PLURIBUS UNUM complete the principal reverse inscriptions.
The combination follows the standardized framework used throughout the 50 State Quarters Program while giving each state space for its individual subject.
The obverse retained George Washington.
John Flanagan’s Washington portrait had appeared on the quarter since 1932, although the State Quarters version was modified by Mint sculptor-engraver William Cousins.
To free the reverse for state-specific artwork, inscriptions normally divided between the two sides were reorganized.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, and QUARTER DOLLAR appear on the obverse.
Philadelphia and Denver Production
Circulation-quality West Virginia quarters were struck at Philadelphia and Denver.
Philadelphia coins carry the P mint mark and Denver coins carry D.
The Mint sold collector-oriented two-roll sets containing one 40-coin roll from each facility.
The rolls were wrapped in special Mint paper identifying the program, state abbreviation, mint of origin, and $10 face value.
The Mint also opened sales of West Virginia quarter products on October 14 at noon ET.
A two-roll set was priced at $32.
Bags of 100 coins cost $35.50, and 1,000-coin bags cost $300.
There was no order limit.
The coins in these products were the same type used in regular transactions, struck on the main production floors at Philadelphia and Denver.
West Virginia followed California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas in the 2005 lineup.
That sequence produced an unusually varied year of imagery.
California featured John Muir, Yosemite’s Half Dome, and a California condor.
Minnesota emphasized lakes, forests, and recreation.
Oregon depicted Crater Lake.
Kansas used the buffalo and sunflower.
West Virginia closed the year with an engineering landmark embedded in mountain scenery.
By 2005, the State Quarters Program had become one of the most successful public coin programs in U.S. history.
It began in 1999 and generated widespread interest among people who had never previously considered themselves coin collectors.
Children searched change for new states.
Families filled folders and maps.
Businesses used the program in promotions, while schools incorporated the coins into lessons.
The quarter became a miniature traveling exhibition of American geography and identity.
Why Quarters Worked So Well
The denomination was ideal for a circulating collecting program.
Quarters were used constantly in commerce and were large enough to carry reasonably detailed designs.
Unlike dollar coins, they did not face serious public resistance to everyday use.
Every new state design therefore had a natural distribution network through cash registers, banks, vending machines, and pocket change.
The West Virginia quarter could reach millions of people without anyone deliberately buying a collectible.
The New River Gorge Bridge became more than a transportation structure.
Each year, West Virginia’s Bridge Day celebrates the landmark and allows pedestrians onto the bridge during a major festival.
The event has also become famous for BASE jumping and rappelling activities.
The bridge’s role in tourism and state identity therefore extends far beyond the highway traffic it was built to carry.
At the time of the quarter’s release, the surrounding federal area was known as New River Gorge National River.
A 53-mile stretch had entered the National Park System in 1978.
In 2020, Congress redesignated much of the protected area as New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.
That later change gave the landscape pictured on the 2005 quarter even greater national prominence.
Because the quarter says NEW RIVER GORGE rather than naming the federal park unit, the later redesignation did not make the coin obsolete.
Instead, the coin captures the landmark at a particular moment in its history.
In 2005, Americans knew the surrounding protected area as a National River.
Today, many visitors encounter the same bridge through one of the country’s newest national parks.
Engineering and Nature on One Coin
Many state quarters emphasized either natural scenery or human achievement.
West Virginia combined both.
The gorge would be visually powerful without the bridge.
The bridge would be impressive even without the dramatic Appalachian landscape.
Together, they create a story about people adapting infrastructure to difficult terrain without erasing the terrain’s visual identity.
That balance made the design especially effective for the Mountain State.
Because hundreds of millions of State Quarters circulated, ordinary examples are usually not rare.
But rarity is not the only reason to study a coin.
The West Virginia quarter connects statehood during the Civil War, twentieth-century bridge engineering, federal park history, modern coin design, and one of the largest public collecting programs ever attempted by the Mint.
A common quarter can still carry an unusually dense historical story.
October 14, 2005 was the day the New River Gorge Bridge officially entered American pocket change.
At the West Virginia State Capitol, Mint and state officials launched the 35th State Quarter while children received new coins and adults exchanged cash for fresh rolls.
The design honored West Virginia as both a place of extraordinary natural scenery and a state capable of overcoming that difficult landscape through engineering.
The bridge had turned a 40-minute winding drive into a crossing of less than a minute. On the quarter, that achievement became a national symbol small enough to hold between two fingers.
Millions of coins then carried the New River Gorge across the country, making one of West Virginia’s greatest landmarks familiar to Americans who had never seen the bridge itself.
ALSO ON THIS DAY
2008 — Stephanie Tubbs Jones Medal Act — The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Gift of Life Medal Act became law.