Yes, you can actually get a quarter with a bat on it this year

Sarah Brookbank | Cincinnati Enquirer

CINCINNATI – A quarter with a bat on it will be minted in the new year.

It's part of the United States Mint's America the Beautiful Quarters Program, which honors national parks and other national sites across the United States, not unlike the 50 State quarters program that launched in 1999.

So why a bat?

This quarter honors the National Park of American Samoa. The park is the only one in the U.S. that is home to the Samoan fruit bat, according to the U.S. Mint.

"The reverse (tails) design depicts a Samoan fruit bat mother hanging in a tree with her pup. The image evokes the remarkable care and energy that this species puts into their offspring," said the U.S. Mint. "The design is intended to promote awareness to the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting."

The 56 coin designs feature a site in each state, District of Columbia and five U.S. territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

A new year means new quarters! #DYK that 2020 will be the 11th year of the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program, with 2021 being the final year? Which quarter are you looking forward to? https://t.co/eKrsy3fG9A #AtBFinal6 pic.twitter.com/Cb8Jbe7djc — United States Mint (@usmint) January 3, 2020

Other quarters to be released in 2020:

Weir Farm National Historic Site, Connecticut

Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, U.S. Virgin Islands

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Vermont

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas

The last coin of the series will be released in 2021. It will honor the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama.

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