2020 America the Beautiful National Park of American Samoa Silver 5 oz

2011 America the Beautiful American Samoa National Park 5 Troy oz Silver copy of the circulating quarters.

National Park of American Samoa is located some 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii and is one of the most remote in the U.S. National Park System. The site includes sections of three islands—Tutuila, Ta’ū, and Ofu. Almost all of the land area of these volcanic islands—from the mountaintops to the coast—is tropical rainforest. The park’s area totals 13,500 acres, 4,000 of which are underwater.

The reverse (tails) design depicts a Samoan fruit bat mother hanging in a tree with her pup. The image evokes the remarkable care and energy that this species puts into their offspring. The design is intended to promote awareness to the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting. The National Park of American Samoa is the only park in the United States that is home to the Samoan fruit bat.

When Congress authorized the America the Beautiful Quarters program they also directed the US Mint to issue an accompanying Silver Bullion Coin. The Mint was directed to produce a 5 Troy oz 999 fine coin with a diameter of 3" and with the weight and fineness imprinted (incused) around the edge.

This caused many problems, the first attempts to produce these coins were failures, as the coin was too thin and when the lettering around the edge was struck the coins folded over. By the time the Mint had solved the technical problems the coins could not be distributed until late in 2010.