Found in Change

When I make a purchase, I always go through my change to see if I get any interesting or rare coins.  Today after paying for my pizza lunch, the guy behind the counter gave me a nickel and three very shiny quarters. 

After the state quarter program ended, the mint decided to ride the popularity of the program and added national park quarters.  5 different designs were released last year, and I had yet to see any minted in 2012.  In my experience, these seem to be very hard to obtain through transactions where every day coins are given as change.

I was very surprised that it took until March of 2013 for me to see any of the 2012 quarters.  I was happy to get 3 of the Hawaii Volcanoes quarters.  All three were shiny and looked as if they were brand new from the mint. 

There were billions of the state quarters minted, so it may be that these coins have to be used up before banks issue the new National Park coins.  Either way, I was happy to see these today and will add to my collection.