Owner Comments:
Caption: "Land of 10,000 Lakes"
Release date: April 4, 2005
Entered Statehood: May 11, 1858
Mintage: 488,000,000
Reverse: Common loon (state bird), Fishing, state map.
Engraver: Charles Vickers
Interesting fact: Minnesota contains some of the oldest rocks found on earth, gneisses some 3.6 billion years old, or 80% as old as the planet. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean; the remains of this volcanic rock formed the Canadian Shield in northeast Minnesota. The roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1.1 billion years ago, Minnesota's geological activity has been more subdued, with no volcanism or mountain formation, but with repeated incursions of the sea, which left behind multiple strata of sedimentary rock.