Essentially this - will I be more likely to get hold of an Arizona state quarter in Arizona than in Connecticut ?
I mean - I live in France and so the majority of Euro coins in my wallet are French although it’s not uncommon to have some “foreign” coins. The most common ones are from neighbouring countries - Italy, Germany - and Ireland as we go there quite often. The only time I really notice a foreign euro is if it’s from Greece or Finland as the design is less familiar to me.
Does the same sort of rule apply to state quarters, are they introduced first in their home state and then diffuse out ?
Nope. The quarters get distributed nationally in the same way all other U.S. coins do. (See here.)
So no, you’re not especially more likely to see an Arizona quarter in Arizona than in Connecticut. However, when a particular state quarter is new, you’re likely to see it sooner in metropolitan areas than in rural ones.
You will be many times over more likely to see a Denver-minted quarter in AZ than a Philadelphia-minted quarter.
Unlike Euros, state quarters are merely commemorative, and do not reflect a point of origin*. They are absolutely U.S. money, not Iowa money or Nevada money, and are distributed essentially simutaneously throughout the U.S. The temporal aspect of their release dates reflects when the state in question was admitted to the union. Hence, quarters from the original thirteen colonies were issued first, and the Alaska quarter (yet to be released) will be last.
*As mentioned above, there is a geographical aspect to the distribution of coins from the Philadephia mint and Denver mint, marked “P” and “D” respectively. Other than the mint marks, the quarters are identical in all aspects.
That’s weird. I thought of this same question yesterday and forgot to ask it. I live in Massachusetts and definitely get more state quarters from the upper Eastern seaboard than anywhere else. The best reason I could come up with is they released state by state in the order of when the state joined the U.S.
Minting of the State Quarters starts well before their release date, so that they can be distributed to all the banks first, in anticipation of people asking for them. (Like me! 
)
Roughly, “P” (Philadelphia) supplies coins east of the Mississippi, “D” (Denver) takes care of the west. Then you get into all the details…
I often come across shiny brand new quarters from years before. These come from people who thought they were gonna make a killing by hoarding this “numismatic rarity” (HA! the Mint makes like a billion of 'em, each and every state) and finally were unable to hold this non-interest-bearing cash around anymore. There are also releases from when a bank pulls a sack out of the basement 'cause they need to make some change.
Regional distribution disparities are pretty much random. You can throw in different percentages of people collecting and then spending them, but that’s beyond the control of the Mint.
I live in New York, and for some reason, California state quarters are extremely rare here (from my experience).
I’ve noticed that Alaska and Hawaii state quarters are really rare around here.
Perfect answers, thank you - I didn’t know about the two mints either so that’s a bonus.
Whoohoo Buckner! So I’m not the only one who knows about that!
They are fairly rare in California also.
I wonder if the inhabitants of a state tend to hoard that state’s quarters. If so, big states like CA and NY would be rarer, since I expect there are an equal number of quarters issued for every state.