The Answer:

The 50 State Quarters Program, which began in 1999, was created by the U.S. Mint to honor the individual U.S. states over the next decade.

According to the program, five quarters will be released each year through 2008. The order in which the coins are introduced is based on when the states were admitted to the Union.

The first coin, Delaware, appeared on Jan. 1, 1999. The last coin scheduled to appear will be Hawaii, which was the last of the 50 states admitted to the Union.

There will not be coins issued for U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico or Guam, but a provision in the law provides that if any additional state is admitted into the Union before the end of the 10-year program it will be given the opportunity to submit a design for a quarter.

Here is a link to the official program schedule.

—The Editors