2028 Quarters: The Five Sports and What Is Still Unknown
The 2028 quarters will honor five sports: American football, swimming, gymnastics, lacrosse, and track and field. The U.S. Mint named them on 26 October 2026, when it published the final 2027 designs for its Youth Sports Coin Collection. The 2028 half dollar will honor para climbing. As of 31 October 2026, no 2028 designs, release dates or mintages had been announced.
The five 2028 quarters sports
The Mint announced the program under its official name, the Youth Sports Coin Collection, in a 26 October 2026 press release that also showed the 2027 coins for the first time. The collection runs from 2027 through 2030 with five quarters a year honoring youth sports and one half dollar a year honoring a Paralympic sport. Mint Director Paul Hollis put the idea this way: "Participation in sports teaches teamwork, perseverance, and the value of working toward a common goal."
The Mint listed all 20 quarter sports and all four half dollar sports by year:
| Year | Quarter sports (five a year) | Half dollar sport |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | Baseball, golf, soccer, softball, snowboarding | Wheelchair basketball |
| 2028 | American football, swimming, gymnastics, lacrosse, track and field | Para climbing |
| 2029 | Basketball, wrestling, tennis, cheerleading, karate | Para ice hockey |
| 2030 | Figure skating, skiing, skateboarding, volleyball, ice hockey | Para snowboarding |
The Mint gave the sports for each year but not a release order within the year. Our full list of Youth Sports Quarters keeps all 24 coins on one page, and the free printable checklist has room for every year.
What the law says about 2028 quarters
The program comes from Public Law 116-330, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, signed on 13 January 2021. It starts the youth sports quarters on 1 January 2027 and keeps the program in effect through 2030. Three points shape 2028:
- Up to five designs a year. The law allows "up to 5 new designs during each year," and the Mint has now named five sports for each year, 20 in all.
- Designs go through the same review. The Treasury Secretary selects each design after consulting the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and after review by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC).
- No deadline for announcements. The law sets no fixed date for choosing designs or announcing them to the public.
Our page on how the sports were chosen covers the 2025 public survey of 58 sports, whose results were never published.
2028 quarters: known vs unknown
| Item | Status as of 31 October 2026 | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| The five 2028 sports | Known | American football, swimming, gymnastics, lacrosse, track and field (Mint, 26 October 2026) |
| 2028 half dollar sport | Known | Para climbing |
| Quarter obverse | Known | GW-01 Washington, used on all 20 quarters |
| Half dollar obverse | Known | New Kennedy portrait, used 2027 to 2030 |
| 2028 reverse designs | Unknown | Not published; no 2028 youth sports portfolio on CFA or CCAC records when we checked |
| Release dates and order | Unknown | Not announced (none announced for 2027 either) |
| Mintages and prices | Unknown | Not announced |
| Designers | Unknown | The Mint has not credited designers for the 2027 quarters |
| 5-ounce silver versions and medals | Authorized | Allowed by the law; no products announced |
The 2028 sports and the Los Angeles Games
Swimming, gymnastics, track and field and lacrosse are all on the program of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and the 2028 Paralympic Games will be held there too. That overlap is easy to notice, but the Mint has not tied the 2028 quarters or the 2028 half dollar to the Games. The coins come from a youth sports program created by a 2021 law.
The same law does reach the Games in a separate way. It authorizes the Treasury Secretary "to design and manufacture medals for award at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles" and lets those medals go to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. As of our October 2026 check, no design portfolio for those medals had appeared on CFA or CCAC records. The Mint has made one LA28 piece already: the CCAC reviewed a handover medallion for the Paris 2024 Games and, in a letter dated 15 December 2023, recommended a design by an 8 to 1 vote. For the five 2028 sports alongside the other 15, see the full Youth Sports Quarters list.
How 2027 went from candidates to final coins
The 2027 coins are the best guide to how 2028 will unfold, because they went through every step in public:
| Date | Step for the 2027 coins |
|---|---|
| 22 Jan to 20 Feb 2025 | Public survey rates 58 sports |
| 18 Nov 2025 | CCAC recommends Washington obverse GW-01 |
| 22 Jan 2026 | CFA recommends Washington obverse GW-03A |
| 19 Feb 2026 | CFA reviews the 2027 reverse candidates |
| 24 Feb 2026 | CCAC reviews and scores the same candidates |
| 26 Oct 2026 | Mint publishes the final 2027 designs and names all 20 sports |
So the 2027 candidate designs were public about eight months before the finals, and the finals came about two months before the coin year began. Neither panel got its way every time. The finished coins match the CCAC's pick for the Washington obverse, golf, softball and the half dollar reverse, and the CFA's pick for soccer and the Kennedy portrait. Baseball and snowboarding were both panels' pick. Requests for changes did not always stick either: the CFA asked for the number 47 on the soccer player's shirt and for home plate to come off the softball design, and neither change appears in the Mint's images.
For 2028, the sports are already public, so the next public step should be the candidate designs. If the Mint follows the 2027 pattern, they would reach the CFA and CCAC in early 2027. That is a pattern, not an announcement. The CFA's 15 October 2026 agenda listed its next meetings as 19 November 2026, 21 January 2027 and 18 February 2027, and the CCAC meetings page showed nothing for 2028 youth sports when we checked. The 2027 quarters page shows how that process played out for the first five coins.
The 2028 obverse: GW-01 carries over
The front of the 2028 quarters is already settled. The Washington obverse was reviewed once for all four years, and the final design matches GW-01, the CCAC's pick from 18 November 2025. The CFA had preferred GW-03A, which showed Washington in uniform as leader of the Continental Army. The Mint describes the chosen portrait as Washington "in civilian attire at a three-quarter angle," and CoinNews reports the Mint calls it the fifth distinct depiction of Washington on a U.S. quarter. Washington appeared on every quarter from 1932 to 2025, while each 2026 Semiquincentennial quarter had its own obverse. Our obverse page has the details.
The 2028 half dollar: para climbing
The companion half dollar honors one Paralympic sport a year, chosen with U.S. Paralympics. The Mint says the reverses are "emblematic of a sport tailored to athletes with a range of disabilities, including physical impairment, vision impairment and intellectual impairment." The 2027 coin shows an adult wheelchair basketball athlete; 2028 is para climbing, followed by para ice hockey in 2029 and para snowboarding in 2030. No 2028 reverse design has been published. The obverse will be the new Kennedy portrait that replaces the one used since 1964 and runs from 2027 to 2030. See our 2027 Kennedy half dollar page for the first coin.
Other 2028 coins already in review
The 2028 Native American $1: surfing
The 2028 Native American $1 reverse honors He'e Nalu, surfing, as a Native Hawaiian contribution. In a letter dated 24 November 2025, the CCAC reported that design 28NA-2 received the highest score, 20 of 30 possible points, and recommended it unanimously by voice vote. The CFA reviewed the same portfolio on 22 January 2026 and also recommended alternative #2. The final dollar design had not been announced when we checked in October 2026.
2028 American Innovation $1 coins
At its 6 October 2026 meeting, the CCAC took up portfolios for the 2028 American Innovation $1 coins honoring Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota and South Dakota. Together with the surfing dollar, that shows the Mint works on 2028 designs a year or more ahead.
What to watch in 2027
- CFA and CCAC agendas for 2028 youth sports and half dollar portfolios. Those will show the first candidate designs.
- A Mint announcement of final 2028 designs, which for 2027 came on 26 October 2026.
- Release dates for the 2027 quarters, tracked on our release dates page. How 2027 is sold will hint at how 2028 is sold; our 2027 proof set post covers the first set.
We will update the site when any of this is published. Until then, anyone describing what the 2028 designs show is guessing. The finished 2027 coins are on the 2027 quarters page.
Frequently asked questions
- What sports will be on the 2028 quarters?
- American football, swimming, gymnastics, lacrosse, and track and field. The U.S. Mint named them on 26 October 2026, but as of 31 October 2026 no 2028 designs had been published.
- Will the 2028 quarters have the same front as 2027?
- Yes. All 20 quarters from 2027 to 2030 use the same new George Washington obverse, design GW-01, which shows him in civilian attire at a three-quarter angle.
- What sport is on the 2028 half dollar?
- Para climbing. It is the second of four Paralympic sports on the Kennedy half dollar, after wheelchair basketball in 2027.
- Are the 2028 quarters tied to the Los Angeles Olympics?
- No. Swimming, gymnastics, track and field and lacrosse are on the 2028 Olympic program, and flag football, a form of American football, debuts there, but the Mint has not tied the quarters to the Games. The law separately authorizes medals for award at the 2028 Games.
- When will the 2028 quarters be released?
- No release dates, order or mintages had been announced as of 31 October 2026. The Mint had not announced release dates for the 2027 quarters either.
- What is on the 2028 Native American dollar?
- The reverse honors He'e Nalu, surfing, as a Native Hawaiian contribution. Both the CCAC and the CFA recommended design 2.
Sources
- Public Law 116-330 (H.R. 1923, enrolled)
- U.S. Mint press release: New circulating coin program designs for 2027 shared publicly (26 Oct 2026)
- U.S. Mint media kit: Youth Sports Coin Collection
- CoinNews: US Mint unveils 2027 Youth Sports Quarters (29 Oct 2026)
- CFA: 2027 Youth American Sports Quarters reverses (CFA 19/FEB/26-13)
- CFA: Meeting agenda, 15 October 2026
- CCAC: Meetings
- CCAC: 2028 Native American $1 letter (24 Nov 2025)
- CFA: 2027 and 2028 Native American One Dollar Coins (CFA 22/JAN/26-10)
- CCAC: 2028 Los Angeles Olympics handover medallion letter (15 Dec 2023)
Published 4 November 2026. Facts checked against the sources listed above. The 2027 designs are final, published by the U.S. Mint on 26 October 2026; later years' designs are not chosen yet.