Silver Five Ounces 2017 Effigy Mounds, Coin from United States - detailed information

This coin is part of the America the Beautiful silver bullion coins (abbreviated ATB) - a series of 56 silver bullion coins with a face value of a quarter dollar. The coins in the series contain 5oz (five troy ounces) of silver, making them the largest silver bullion coins issued to date by the United States Mint. The design of the coins duplicates exactly - though much enlarged - each of the America the Beautiful quarters. They were issued from 2010 to 2021.

All coins in the series feature a common obverse depicting George Washington in a restored version of the portrait created by John Flanagan for the 1932 Washington quarter, while the reverses feature five individual designs for each year of the program (one in 2021), each depicting a national park or national site - one from each state, federal district, and territory.

The Effigy Mounds National Monument quarter design is the first to be released in 2017 and the 36th overall in the America the Beautiful Quarters Program; it was released on 6 February 2017 and represents the state of Iowa.

Effigy Mounds National Monument was established in 1949. The park protects one of the largest remaining concentrations of ancient American Indian earthworks in the United States. It is considered a sacred landscape by members of many modern-day tribes whose ancestors once lived here. The majority of the mounds were constructed between one thousand and two thousand years ago - often to inter the dead, but sometimes for ceremonial purposes, or to tell important stories.

The park is home to more than 200 mounds in a wide variety of forms, including more than 30 animal or bird-shaped “effigy” mounds for which the park is named. Often more than 100 feet long individually, many of these animal and bird shaped mounds are perched high atop rugged bluffs overlooking the adjacent Mississippi River. Aside from preserving these tangible links to an ancient and highly creative people, the park features outstanding views of the Mississippi River Valley, and hosts many of the native plant and animal communities that sustained people in this area for millennia.