I've been a devoted collector of all the fine, fine, superfine commemorative state quarters, issued five a year for 10 years from 1999-2008, especially up through the 2005 quarters when anybody--school kids, pancake-house artists, lunatics--could still submit design proposals. From 2006 on it looks as if the Mint decided they'd had enough, because after that the only designs considered were the ones the Mint came up with themselves. No more 26 amateur designs, like Florida! (And even then, look what they ended up with.)
I have written about the state quarters here on Beware of the Blog—more than once!—and just when I thought 2008 was the end of it, the Mint announced that 5 MORE special quarters would be released in 2009: THE COMMEMORATIVE QUARTERS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND UNITED STATES TERRITORIES! Guam! American Samoa! Puerto Rico! THE NORTHERN EFFIN' MARIANA ISLANDS!
I was SO ready for those quarters, even though the District of Columbia inexplicably chose Duke Ellington over Frederick Douglass for theirs. Sure, Duke Ellington was a great musician, but, you know ...
Frederick Douglass. Plus, they didn't even consider Marvin Gaye or Marion Barry. But it's not like I've actually
seen a District of Columbia quarter. You know how, with the state quarters, every few months

you'd get a new one: "Oh, look! Arkansas! The 'Moses-in-the-bullrushes-with-an-Egyptian-egret-and-a-giant-diamond' state!" But now it's mid-October and
I haven't seen a 2009 quarter all year! So the first one was supposed to be D.C., and one of our WFMU Listeners has posted and said he got one at his sister's house in New Jersey, so maybe they are out there, somewhere. And the second one was supposed to be Puerto Rico—and it appears they haven't decided on
their design yet. Is that what's holding up the show?
Puerto Rico? Because Guam is all designed and ready to go, and it is super awesome. It features both the latte
and the flying proa! Even though half the time I get them mixed up and think it's the proa and the flying latte! Either way, I want my Guam quarter, dammit!
I really feel that the United State Mint has let me down on this. It made me reconsider the Ron

Paul dollar—
the second-most popular currency in the United States!—and I was all ready to order some right now, but then I went to the website and it says, "We are Not Accepting any New Orders Until After the Trial." So I guess that's out. But I am getting pretty tired of waiting for the U.S. Mint (Home of the first-most popular currency in the United States!) to get the 2009 territorial quarters in circulation. After all, if the official agencies of our government are going to start acting like infomercial advertisers with all these weird "collectibles" (the Postal Service has been selling licensed-character crap for over a decade, for instance--some of which I was responsible for,

I just remembered, but it wasn't my fault, they paid me to do it)--anyway, then they'd better learn to ship the product on schedule. No matter what Puerto Rico does.