The California Quarter is the First of the 50 States Commemorative Quarters released by the U.S. Mint in the year 2005, and the 31st of the entire series.

According to the U.S. Mint’s official website, California was admitted into the Union on September 9, 1850, becoming our Nation’s 31st State. Nicknamed the “Golden State,” California’s quarter depicts naturalist and conservationist John Muir admiring Yosemite Valley’s monolithic granite headwall known as “Half Dome” and also contains a soaring California condor. The coin bears the inscriptions “California,” “John Muir,” “Yosemite Valley” and “1850.”

The Minnesota Quarter is the Second of the 50 States Commemorative Quarters released by the U.S. Mint in the year 2005, and the 32nd of the entire series.

According to the U.S. Mint’s official website, The design features a tree-lined lake with two people fishing, a loon on the water, and a textured outline of the State surrounding its nickname, “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. The “Land of 10,000 Lakes” actually contains more than 15,000 such bodies of water whose total shoreline exceeds 90,000 miles – more than California, Hawaii and Florida combined.

Equally renowned as the home of the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River, the name Minnesota is derived from the Dakota Sioux word for “cloudy water.”

The Oregon Quarter is the Third of the 50 States Commemorative Quarters released by the U.S. Mint in the year 2005, and the 33rd of the entire series.

According to the U.S. Mint’s official website, Its coin design features a portion of Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States, viewed from the south-southwest rim. The design incorporates Wizard Island, as well as Watchman and Hillman Peaks on the lake’s rim and conifers. The coin bears the inscription “Crater Lake”.

Crater Lake is a unique and stunning natural treasure, formed more than 7,700 years ago by the collapse of Mt. Mazama in what is now southern Oregon. At 1,949 feet, it is the deepest lake in the United States and the seventh deepest in the world, and has a record clarity depth of 134 feet. The main cause of Crater Lake’s remarkable clarity is its isolation from incoming streams and rivers.

The Kansas Quarter is the Fourth of the 50 States Commemorative Quarters released by the U.S. Mint in the year 2005, and the 34th of the entire series.

According to the U.S. Mint’s official website, The Kansas commemorative quarter incorporates two of the State’s most beloved symbols, the state animal and flower, the buffalo and the sunflower. Each of these two design elements is a visual reminder of our Nation’s heartland. They feature prominently in the history of the territory, and both were found in abundance throughout the State in the middle of the 19th century when Kansas gained its statehood. With its release in the Fall of 2005, it is the second United States circulating coin of 2005 to carry an image of the buffalo.

The West Virginia Quarter is the Last of the 50 States Commemorative Quarters released by the U.S. Mint in the year 2005, and the 35th of the entire series.

According to the U.S. Mint’s official website, This coin captures the scenic beauty of the State with its depiction of the New River and the New River Gorge Bridge. The coin bears the inscription “New River Gorge”.

Prior to gaining statehood, the area that is now West Virginia formed the western part of Virginia. Settlers in the western part of the "Old Dominion” began their efforts to join the federal Union when Virginia announced its secession in 1861. In the western part of the State, the Restored Government of Virginia in Wheeling drafted a state constitution in 1862. The new state called West Virginia applied to Congress for admission into the Union. Congress approved the request with one condition, that the new state abolish slavery.

The design chosen to represent West Virginia is one that combines the natural physical beauty of the State and the triumph of the human intellect exemplified by the engineering wonder that is the New River Gorge Bridge. At 3,030 feet long and 69 feet wide, the bridge is the world’s largest steel span and the second highest bridge in the United States, rising 876 feet above the New River Gorge in southern West Virginia. In 1978, 53 miles of the New River was added to the National Park System as the New River Gorge National River.