2010-D Hot Springs

Denver's contribution to the 2010 Hot Springs launch came in at 35,400,000 pieces, edging out Philadelphia's 34,000,000 by roughly 1.4 million and giving the D-mint the higher production tally for the opening design of the America's Beautiful National Parks program. Don Everhart's reverse, showing the park's headquarters building with thermal water in the foreground, was first struck at Denver in late winter 2010 ahead of the official release ceremony at Hot Springs that April. The site itself dates federal protection to 1832, the oldest such designation in the country, which is why it led off the 56-design series authorized by the 2008 Quarter Dollar Coin Act.

Production characteristics at Denver during the 2010 ATB launch differ subtly from Philadelphia. D-mint dies tend to show slightly stronger strike on the central architectural detail, while P-mint examples sometimes carry crisper texture in the cascading water at the foreground. Collectors building a registry set learn to read these differences and select examples that capture both. The composition is the standard clad sandwich (75% copper-nickel outer layers over pure copper, 5.67 grams), and authentication concerns are minimal: counterfeiting modern clad quarters is uneconomic, so the high-grade market runs through PCGS and NGC slabs (the major third-party grading services) rather than raw-coin verification.

The 2010-D Hot Springs reads as a common date for circulated and lower Mint State purposes, with real premiums kicking in at MS67 and climbing again at MS68 where population counts drop sharply. Bank-roll hunting still produces MS65 examples, particularly from Denver Federal Reserve releases in the western U.S., though the yield has thinned across the past decade. Set builders pursuing a complete ATB run in slabbed MS67 will find the Denver issues marginally more available than their Philadelphia counterparts, though not by a meaningful price margin. For the broader story of the ATB program, the 2008 authorizing legislation, and the series' design arc, see the Washington ATB series history.