Last month at the Merced Mall Ed Miranda completed a task he has worked on for the past three years.</p><p>"I said, 'It finally came.' I was jumping up and down and I almost forgot my bag of clothes that I had bought," Miranda, a Los Ba&#241;os resident, said. </p><p>A startled saleswoman asked him what had come. He replied that the change she just gave him included quarters from Hawaii and Alaska. The 79-year-old now had the final two coins he needed to finish his collection of quarters from all 50 states.</p><p>In about 2005 Miranda decided to start his coin collection. He didn't order them through the mail, and only once did he give into the temptation to visit a coin shop. Miranda obtained the coins the hard way, by adding to his collection through everyday transactions. He also enlisted loved ones to help out when they could. </p><p>"My daughter-in-law was working at SaveMart. Sometimes she could get one. I had three or four people you know. It takes a long time," he said. </p><p>Miranda is not new to collecting. In his home he has swords from China, spoons from around the world and an eclectic group of wine bottles he's been gathering since 1982.</p><p>"I collect you know. People say 'Why you doing that?' I don't know why,I just do it," he said. "Piece of history, that's what it is."</p><p>Miranda said the coins are dear to him because they remind him of his travels to all 50 states. </p><p>Collecting them meant going through a lot of change. Miranda finds himself giving away quarters nowadays just to reduce the supply he's built up at his home. Plus, he said, he doesn't need the money. </p><p>Of all the coins in his collection Miranda said Hawaii was the hardest to get. He said the mint only made 500 so they aren't widely circulated. </p><p>Rhode Island, New Jersey, Vermont and Tennesse were among the first quarters in his collection. Miranda picked up California at the bank.</p><p>"I went to get cash and they gave it to me," Miranda said. "They didn't know what they were giving me."</p><p>Troy Thoreson, owner of Thoreson Numismatics, said collecting quarters from all 50 states is a little challenging. He said the U.S. Mints in Denver and Philadelphia make new quarters every 10 weeks, meaning five designs come out per year. </p><p>Miranda is planning to pass many of his collections down to his grandchildren. The state quarters, however, are ticketed for donation to the Milliken Museum. </p><p>Miranda already knows what he wants to collect next. He plans on getting the U.S. Mint's commemorative coin of President Elect Barack Obama.</p><p>"The 44th president, I'm going to get it. He's the first black man we got. I got to have it," he said. "That's history, that's really history. It's going to be expensive but I'm going to get it."</p><p>Thoreson said if Miranda does get the Obama coin, excluding knock-offs produced by private companies, it won't be until the middle of the next decade because of the commemorative dollars being created now.</p><p>"They(the U.S. Mint) are printing dollars with the presidents and they only print four per year," Thoreson said. "They are in the 1800s now so it will be 2016 - 2017 before they get to Obama's dollar."</p><p><i>Enterprise staff writer Corey Pride can be reached at 388-6563 or cpride@losbanosenterprise.com</i>