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| A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America--One State Quarter at a Time | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Noles
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $14.34
You Save: $10.66 (43%)
New (39) Used (15) from $12.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 19866
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0306815788
Dewey Decimal Number: 737.4973
EAN: 9780306815782
ASIN: 0306815788
Publication Date: May 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: SIGNED BY AUTHOR! Brand new with dust jacket! We ship daily! Over 50,000 books in stock! (1sb)
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Product Description
The U.S. Mint’s Fifty State Quarters Program-its most ambitious program to date-has been a huge popular success. When the final state quarters are released in 2008, many thousands of individuals will have collected one commemorative quarter for each state in the Union. But what can we learn about our country’s history and culture from $12.50 worth of quarters? A Pocketful of History tells the intriguing story behind each state’s quarter: how each state chose its quarter’s design; what is important about the people, scenes, or themes depicted on the coin; and what the collection tells us about how we view ourselves and our heritage. A Pocketful of History will guide readers on a fascinating journey through America’s rich history of change.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 History in your pocket or on your wall May 14, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
History, Sartre said, is what happens behind our backs (or something to that effect). It's also something that jangles in our pockets, if we carry or save or even spend quarters from the 50 State Quarters Program.
We know this because Jim Noles has taken the time and expended great effort to write the winsome and valuable A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America--One State Quarter at a Time (Da Capo Press).
Following Canada's lead in the mid 1990s, the US government decided to issue, over a period of ten years, commemorative quarters representing some significant and representative event or symbol or enduring attribute of each of the fifty states, issued in the order in which all fifty states came into the union. There is more than one history at work here, that being a coin's depiction of a state's historical self-definition -- but, in addition, much to our benefit, Noles has taken the time to tell us the stories behind the states' decisions and debates on which events or symbols to use, and how best to depict them.
Those descriptions in themselves prove to be a fascinating look at how politics and personalities shape what we see and how we see it -- a history lesson in itself.
In scrupulous -- but not overbearing -- detail, Noles tells us about Delaware's Ceasar Rodney who, in 1776, suffering from a debilitating cancer, rode 80 miles in one day from his home state to Philadelphia just in time to cast his vote for independence; or Colorado's perhaps not unexpected depiction of the majestic Rockies as a symbol of the beauty and natural resources of the state; or North Dakota's display of bison and the stunning buttes and mountains that make up the 39th state's harshly beautiful Badlands.
The legislation to create the 50 State Quarters Program was signed into law in 1997 by President Bill Clinton, and the plan was to issue the quarters incrementally over a ten-year period. By the end of 2008, with the minting of Hawaii's quarter (Hawaiian monarch King Kamehameha I stretching his hand toward the eight major Hawaiian Islands), the Quarters program officially ended, and it has proven to be an enormous success -- both financially for the government and aesthetically and historically for numismatists and otherwise interested parties everywhere.
Noles, thankfully, provides us a comprehensive look at the very distinct, yet commonly bound, 50 states that make up the U.S. He does so with enough erudition to make the book substantive while interjecting the perfect amount of lightheartedness and whimsy to make the book eminently readable.
 Great book about 50 State Quarters program May 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I didn't know I was interested in the 50 State Quarters Program until I started reading this excellent book. Noles dedicates a chapter to each state. I love the reporting he did into how each state chose what would go on its quarter.
The book's not just about the program, though. Noles uses it as a jumping off point to explore little chunks of history, some of them well known, some of them obscure.
This would be a great gift for a coin collector. My brother-in-law is a big fan of the 50 State program. He flew through the copy I gave him and wanted a sequel. I keep my copy by the tub, where I read another state each night. Last night, I read about Hillman's discovery of Oregon's Crater Lake.
Written in a reader-friendly narrative style June 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Written by attorney Jim Noles, A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America - One State Quarter at a Time is a treasury for history trivia buffs and coin collectors alike, as it relates how each of the fifty commemorative state quarters celebrates American history. There are fifty chapters; each one begins with a magnified, black-and-white rendition of a different state's unique quarter design, followed by the story behind the design and historical vignettes aplenty. Written in a reader-friendly narrative style, A Pocketful of History is the perfect companion book for state quarter collectors everywhere.
pocketful of history June 20, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
this is an outstanding book; the perfect companion to any state quarter
collection. although collectors would've liked to see more details like
issue dates and quantities minted.
Required reading for school kids September 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a fantastic book that should be required reading for all students. It gave a quick, 5 page, history of the quarter, that most people would never have known. I am giving this to all my grandkids for Christmas. The research the author did was incredible.
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