http://mintnewsblog.com/2012/05/circulating-quality-2012-s-america-the-beautiful-quarters/

http://news.coinupdate.com/san-francisco-mint-circulating-quality-america-the-beautiful-quarters-1384/

The San Francisco Mint is striking all five 2012 America the Beautiful quarter dollars in circulation-quality with the S Mint mark for numismatic sales in 100-coin bags and 40-coin rolls later in the year.

The San Francisco Mint is not striking the coins for circulation, according to Tom Jurkowsky, director of the U.S. Mint’s Office of Public Affairs. The coins will be sold at numismatic premiums above face value.

The San Francisco facility has not struck circulation-quality coins (for circulation or collector sales) since the early 1980s, although it has struck Uncirculated commemorative and bullion coins.

U.S. Mint officials have not yet disclosed when the circulation-quality 2012-S America the Beautiful quarter dollars will be offered for sale.

Jurkowsky said the U.S. Mint plans to strike 7 million 2012-S America the Beautiful quarter dollars in circulation-quality — a maximum of 1.4 million each for coins with reverse designs representing El Yunque National Forest (Puerto Rico), Chaco Culture National Historical Park (New Mexico), Acadia National Park (Maine), Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park (Hawaii) and Denali National Park (Alaska).

I know they are doing some kind of work at the Philadelphia mint . . . maybe they’ve shifted some of the circulating quarter production to SF for awhile? Production of circulating coins without mintmarks at SF has happened before.

I realize that news reporting can be full of mistakes and I was sure that this was what was going on (i.e., a box of blanks is not really a box of quarters) until I saw the video pictures. Then I started to wonder . . .

“These are blanks, which will be turned into quarters. The San Francisco Mint hasn’t made quarters for circulation since 1954. However, this year, they’ve resumed manufacturing the coins. The reason? The quarters, featuring San Francisco’s “S” mark, can command a significant premium from collectors. It’s all about money, you see.”

I haven’t seen any other mention or information about this, but will try to find out what is happening. Maybe these are for some sort of special set…

I looked at the photos and news video regarding the San Francisco mint 75th anniversary media event — and I could swear that it appears from these pictures that they are making circulating quarters out there! In any case, the photos and video showed a whole large metal box of what appeared to be circulating quality ATB quarters . . .

Or, is this just a box of quarters from Denver and Philadelphia that they assemble into the mint sets? Do you know what is going on with that? I went on a tour of the Denver mint a few years back and they had machinery to assemble their mint sets, so I am a bit surprised. At that time, at least (2010), the mint set coins were clearly being assembled into their mint-specific folders at Denver.

What other reason would there be for a box of what were clearly non-proof quarters out in SF?

Interesting!