Sen. Phil Gramm, chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, has announced that the plaster cast for the Rhode Island state quarter will be formally added to the walls of the Senate Banking Committee hearing room at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 23.

Scheduled to attend the presentation, besides Committee Chairman Gramm and Ranking Member Paul Sarbanes of Maryland are Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Lincoln Chafee.

The Rhode Island state quarter, to be released May 21, features a vintage sailboat gliding through Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and an image of the Pell Bridge in the background.

The 50 States Quarter Program, enacted on December 1, 1997, provides for a 10-year circulating coin program to commemorate each of the 50 states. Each state quarter is minted in the order of the state's ratification of the Constitution. The Rhode Island quarter is number 13 in this series.

On March 27, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill formally presented the U.S. Senate with the first 12 plaster casts used in the production of the state quarters. The framed plasters are a permanent addition to the Senate Banking Committee hearing room, and plasters of each state coin are added to the walls as they are officially released by the Mint. The plaster casts depict the final designs chosen to symbolize the states on the reverse of the nation's circulating quarter dollars.

WHAT:
Presentation of U.S. Senate with Plaster Cast of Rhode Island State Quarter

WHO:
Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm
Banking Committee Ranking Member Paul Sarbanes
Senator Jack Reed
Senator Lincoln Chafee

WHEN:
9:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 23, 2001

WHERE:
Room 538, Dirksen Senate Building