The Delaware Quarter was the very first coin to be released in the State Quarters Program, which is rightfully due to the fact that it was the first state to ratify the Constitution.
The Delaware Quarter has an image of Caesar Rodney on the 1776 ride that took him 80 miles through heat and storms so that he could vote for Delaware to sign the Declaration of Independence. His vote actually ended up being the tie-breaker. His name is depicted next to the horse, and the state nickname is on the right side of the coin. It reads: “The First State.”
William Cousins was the designer of the Delaware Quarter. It was released on January 4, 1999 and had 774,824,000 coins produced for circulation.
Delaware became a state on December 7, 1787, and adopted a new constitution for the state in 1792. The Dutch were the first to settle in Delaware in 1631, when they came for trading. In 1638, New Sweden was established as a colony and trading post, in present day Wilmington. The Dutch and Swedes fought over the area until 1664, when the entire area was taken over by British forces.
Delaware is located on the Northeast part of the Delmarva Peninsula, bordering New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Atlantic Ocean.