The 50 State Quarters Program that began in 1999 was a stroke of marketing genius that benefited the U.S. Mint, the state histories they celebrated and the numismatic community. On a personal note, the program revived my interest in coin collecting at a time when I actually had some disposable income.

I collected coins as a kid by buying rolls of pennies and nickels from the bank, searching them for the oldest dates, and exchanging them over and over again for new rolls. But that meant my collection was largely limited to a bunch of common-date wheat pennies and well-worn Jefferson nickels. I never even bought the relatively inexpensive annual sets of coins sold by the Mint back then.

That’s the first thing I started doing when the state quarters were introduced. But it was just the beginning of my renewed love of coins. I paid closer attention to my change and found surprises like a 1920 buffalo nickel and two pre-1965 silver coins; I bought even larger batches of rolled coins (including half-dollars) from local banks and found even better coins; I became a regular at the local coin show every three months; and I visited estate sales, antique stores and pawn shops.

We adopted our first child, Anthony, from Guatemala the same year the state quarters were released, and soon after, I stumbled upon a 1/4 real from the late 1800s (not as nice as the one pictured) at an estate sale. It was the smallest coin I had ever seen. From that day forward, I made it my mission to buy every Guatemalan coin I could find and afford.

The memories of my son I treasure most are of the two of us “playing pennies” in the basement when he was a toddler. I’d search $50 worth of rolled pennies and pile the ones that were wheat cents onto the floor. We pitched them into jars, piled them into Anthony’s plastic dump truck and invented all manner of other games to pass the time.

We have three children and a larger mortgage these days, so the numismatist in me has gone dormant again. Blogging is a less expensive hobby, and I’ve mostly lost interest in searching dozens of rolls of coins to find one or two that aren’t worth much. The 10-year run of state quarters also ends as of today (next year’s extension will feature new quarters for the District of Columbia and U.S. territories)

But I’m glad the statehood quarters program came along when it did. I learned more about American history and had great times with my son as a result. The program also produced some memorable art. You can see one numismatist’s take on the top designs at Coin Collector’s Blog .

I don’t agree with all of them — for instance, the Connecticut design is among the most bland in my book — but his picks generally reflect the truth that wildlife and scenic images worked best and that the designs improved as the program matured. Six of the designs are from states west of the Mississippi River.

Here are my picks for the best and worst designs, in the order of release (and yes, West Virginia made the cut in part because I’m a West Virginian):

Best

Worst