The Virginia quarter honors our nation's oldest colony, Jamestown, Virginia.  The three ships on the coin—Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery—brought the first English colonists here in the spring of 1607.

Loaded with cargo and 104 boys and men, the ships set sail from London on December 20, 1606.  Nearly five months later, they landed on a small island along the James River.  The crew formed the first permanent colony in the New World, 13 years before Plymouth, Massachusetts, was settled.  They named it Jamestown in honor of King James I, who had chartered their voyage.