It's the end of the roll for the U.S. Mint's state quarter series

Come November, the U.S. Mint's popular 10-year state quarter program will honor its last state, Hawaii. And while not rare, since about 34 billion were produced, the commemorative coins have captured the frenzied fancy of kids and parents as they've drawn extended family, tip-collecting waitresses and friendly bank tellers into the hunt.
Coveted by roughly 147 million collectors in the U.S., the coins have also been lucrative, bringing in $3.5 billion in profit by the end of 2007.
"This is the most popular coin program in history," said U.S. Mint spokesman Michael White.
The Mint issued the quarters in the order each state joined the Union, with five releases a year at intervals of about 10 weeks. Collection books, often in the shape of U.S. maps, are full of state trivia and history covering each state, and the U.S. Mint state quarter page includes details about each of the 50 designs.
Teachers have also hopped aboard, downloading thousands of free lesson plans on the quarters at www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers.
"I like learning about the state nicknames, what year the state joined the U.S, what year the quarter was made and what the flags look like for each state," said Grey Miller, 10, of the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst.
Coin World, the "world's No. 1 publication for coin collectors," even maintains a specific state quarter news Web page at www.statequarters.com. This week's news focuses on the governors who selected the historic quarter designs. The lot includes a lot of big names, including Sarah Palin (who was introduced as Sen. John McCain's running mate the same day Alaska's quarter was launched), Mike Huckabee and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
With the end of the program come special sets of the quarters as well. And collectors looking for a fresh fix should keep eyes peeled next year. That's when quarters will be issued for the left-out District of Columbia, commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. territories of Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
-- The Associated Press