I confess: My change purse has been overloaded for weeks. Every time I get my hands on one of those new state-themed quarters, I hoard it. For a variety of reasons -- they're new, they're different, maybe they'll be valuable someday -- I decided it wasn't smart to spend them. But my husband, who wanted a couple to buy a newspaper, thought I was insane. So I decided to get the real scoop.

Turns out the truth is somewhere in between. The U.S. Mint is producing at least 700 million of each quarter (in the order in which the states joined the union; Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut arrived this year). That's a large enough number that the American Numismatic Association, a coin collectors' group, doubts they'll ever rise greatly in value, says spokesman Steve Bobbitt. Collect them if you like them, he says; "if they increase in value, it's a bonus."

Still, the coins are vanishing. In a typical year, 1.25 billion quarters are minted; this year, because of hoarding, 3.5 billion. Demand exceeds supply. For that reason (and because I'm a sucker for this stuff), I'll keep my quarters. One day, I'll pass them on to my kids, along with the mint-condition Bicentennial quarter I picked up in 1976 when my parents took me to Philadelphia to have a piece of America's birthday cake. Its current worth, according to Bobbitt: 50 cents.