To celebrate the debut of the US Mint’s 2018 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Quarter, on Saturday, February 10 Lansing coin dealer Liberty Coin Service (LCS) will begin giving them away to people who bring to the store non-perishable food or cash donations to the Greater Lansing Food Bank. The event, called the “Cans For Quarters Food-Raiser,” will continue through March 31, 2018. Customers will receive one quarter for each of the first four food items they donate and a 40-coin roll of Pictured Rocks Quarters for cash donations of $25.00 or more.
Said LCS CEO and owner Tom Coulson, “This will be the fourth time that Liberty has celebrated the introduction of a new coin by giving away quarters in a Food-Raiser to support the Greater Lansing Food Bank. We began this tradition in 1999 with the first issue of the Statehood Quarter series, then again in 2004 with the release of the Michigan Statehood Quarter, and once more in 2010 for the first issue of the current America the Beautiful Quarter series. In each of the previous campaigns, we brought in multiple tons of food donations and thousands of dollars in cash contributions. We want to do even better this time around. We thank the Peoples State Bank in Munising, Michigan for providing us a supply of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Quarters to allow us to begin this Food-Raiser before the coins will start showing up at banks in the Lansing area.”
To kick off the Cans For Quarters Food-Raiser, State Senator Steve Bieda (D-Warren), Michigan’s only designer of a United States coin (the reverse of the 1992 Olympic Commemorative Half Dollar) has been invited. Others who have confirmed their participation in the First Donation Ceremony when Liberty Coins opens at 10:00 AM on February 10 include Todd Powell, the Food Resources Manager for the Greater Lansing Food Bank, State Senator Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge), and businessman and community leader Chris Holman. Deb Hart, the weekday morning host of 94.9 FM WMMQ, will do a remote broadcast from Liberty that morning.
In addition to the Cans For Quarters Food-Raiser, Liberty Coin Service is participating in other events involved the introduction of the new Michigan Quarter. Tom Coulson and LCS Communications Officer Patrick A. Heller are scheduled to participate in the US Mint’s Coin Forum on Tuesday, February 6 at the Munising Township Office in Wetmore, Michigan, where LCS is sponsoring the refreshments for the event. They will also attend the US Mint’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Quarter Launch & Coin Exchange at Mather Elementary School in Munising, Michigan on Wednesday, February 7 (https://www.usmint.gov/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Pictured-Rocks-Invitation-Flyer.pdf). LCS is also offering to make presentations at area schools and give each student one of these new quarters if the school will conduct a collection of food donations for the Greater Lansing Food Bank. In 2016, LCS conducted an unofficial, non-scientific survey among the public and at area schools as to which of the 13 candidate designs for the forthcoming 2018 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Quarter were most popular.
Frequently-honored Liberty Coin Service, founded in 1971, is Michigan’s largest rare coin and precious metals dealership. It has been located in Lansing’s Frandor Shopping Center since 1975. Communications Officer Patrick A. Heller calls himself the “unofficial artist” of the 2004 Michigan Statehood Quarter, as he was the primary author of the written instructions sent to the US Mint’s engravers to create the master dies to strike the coin.
The Greater Lansing Food Bank, founded in 1981, provides emergency food and other programs to help foster self-sufficiency, sustainability, and community building among residents in the metropolitan area.
