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August 25 is known as National Park Service Founders Day, a holiday recognizing the many who joined together to help preserve America’s natural beauty and civic history in ways everyone can enjoy. So, why celebrate the day on August 25? That’s because it was the day in 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act into law, which authorized the National Park Service. The system began with 35 areas and has since mushroomed to include more than 400 parks encompassing 85 million acres. The largest site is Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, sporting 13.2 million acres; the smallest, Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, resides in Philadelphia and occupies a mere 0.02 acres.
The sites and landmarks under the tutelage of the National Park Service collectively draw millions of visitors each year, with tourism at the parks having been especially strong since the end of World War II in the 1940s. The National Park Service also received a boost in attention during the production of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program, also known as the National Park Quarters. The National Park Quarters were struck by the United States Mint from 2010 through 2021 and encompass 56 different designs representing a landmark from each of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and United States Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, President Woodrow Wilson appears on a 2013 Presidential Dollar, coincidentally issued during the centennial of his inauguration in 1913, when he began the first of his two presidential terms that saw him in the White House until 1921.
Those who wish to build sets of National Parks Quarters or Presidential Dollars have many options. Most certainly the PCGS Set Registry affords collectors myriad opportunities for building exciting and competitive sets of these two widely collected modern series, with a dozen-plus categories accommodating the National Park Quarters and some two dozen incorporating Presidential Dollars.