The U.S. Mint Is Making A Fruit Bat Quarter Just When We Need It Most
If you’ve always lamented that your pocket change wasn’t quite spooky enough, brace yourself for an exciting turn of events: Bats. On quarters.
Let us explain. As part of its America the Beautiful Quarters Program that launched in 2010, the U.S. Mint releases five new quarter designs per year, each depicting national parks and sites. The 2020 set is scheduled for release on Feb. 3 and will include the National Park of American Samoa quarter, which features a Samoan fruit bat hanging from a tree and holding her pup.
The National Park of American Samoa is the only U.S. park that’s home to the Samoan fruit bat. Also known as “flying foxes,” these bats are big guys, with wings that span up to 3 feet, and are active day and night. They can only be found in the Samoan Islands and Fiji, as they’ve become extinct from Tonga.
Richard Masters, the coin’s designer, stated that the design is meant to “promote awareness of the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting.”
Here’s what Twitter had to say about the new quarter design.
2020 is off to a rough start but things will turn around in February when the bat quarters come out https://t.co/Hu8As4Q4je pic.twitter.com/rPMHfVL5Ik
— Alana Massey (@AlanaMassey) January 7, 2020
finally i can pay gothly
— niina pollari (@heartbarf) January 8, 2020
Demonetization:
- hurts the poor
- puts cart before horse in terms of digital transaction infrastructure
- plot by cryptocurrency nerds?
Keeping physical currency:
- fruit bat quarter
- allows most vulnerable to access goods and services
- fruit bat quarter
- fruit bat quarter pic.twitter.com/sJdFNjhRzf— Emma Caterine (@EmmaCaterineDSA) January 8, 2020
"Holy parking tickets Batman, how did The Penguin get a meter installed way out here in the Southern Andes?"
"It doesn't matter Robin, even if he's a scofflaw, we still have to pay to park the Batmobile legally. Quick, hand me the Bat Quarter!"— Casey Grimm (@casualle_gaimer) January 8, 2020
If you use a Bat Quarter in the Bram Stoker's Dracula pinball machine you get a free game. https://t.co/qU3N3F28Lu
— Max Nestorowich (@MMNestorowich) January 8, 2020
Still impatiently waiting for the Harriet Tubman $20, but I admit... the Bat Quarter brings me joy. https://t.co/PPicGN0FU4
— Erin B Lindsay (@erinblindsay) January 8, 2020
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
