Owner Comments:
Caption: "The Great Land"
Release date: August 23, 2008
Entered Statehood: January 3, 1959
Mintage: 505,800,000
Reverse: Grizzly bear with salmon (state fish) and North Star.
Engraver: Charles Vickers
Interesting fact: In 1964, the massive "Good Friday Earthquake" killed 131 people and destroyed several villages, mainly by the resultant tsunamis. It was the third most powerful earthquake in the recorded history of the world, with a moment magnitude of 9.2. It was over one thousand times more powerful than the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. Luckily, the epicenter was in an unpopulated area or thousands more would have been killed.