USA Today: State quarter program gets new push to include D.C., U.S. territories. Too much of a good thing?
The 50-state quarter program was launched in 1999 and is scheduled to wrap up at the end of 2008 with the minting of the quarter for Hawaii, the last state to enter the union. The program has been extremely popular with collectors. From 125 million to 130 million people in the USA — or close to half the U.S. population — collect the state quarters, according to the American Numismatic Association.