Project at Mint Draws Complaints From Many Quarters

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, December 29, 2003 | BROOKS BARNES

[TroutStalker]

These days, a growing number of two-bit battles are rattling the sleepy U.S. Mint. The federal agency's commemorative quarters program, a pocket-change salute to the 50 states, has pitted politicians, tourism officials and artists against each other in bruising battles. Launched in 1999 as a benign patriotic gambit to revive coin-collecting, it's instead spurring peevish spats over custody of American icons and how states define themselves.

[Drango]

States can choose to depict pretty much anything

California's is gonna be a giant sinkhole...

[eastsider]

And I suppose that New Hampshire gets a reissue, now that the Old Man of the Mountain is gone ...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

California's is gonna be a giant sinkhole...

ROFL!!

Kansas should pick the Buffalo or Custers 7th Cavalry or depictions of one of the many frontier Forts .

[GraniteStateConservative]

It was never something you would really visit-- you mostly just drove by it. We're putting up a memorial, but there's a hundred things to do in that region of the state. Tourism hasn't been affected at all by the crumbling. We don't have any plans to take the Old man off anything-- signs, license plates, etc. It's become the Spirit of the Old Man.

[TroutStalker]

The gun grabbers might prefer Dodge City.

[Dacus943]

"Project at Mint Draws Complaints From Many Quarters"

This headline makes no cents to me!!!

[mtbopfuyn]

The state quarters are just plain silly.

[Redbob]

"The question in Texas: Remember the Alamo -- or the nine-banded armadillo?"

If Rhode Island gets a quarter, Texas ought to get at least a dozen different designs.

[hunter112]

Well, if mountains are out, I guess my state (the People's Republic of Washington) won't be able to use Mount Rainier, like we do on our license plates. Maybe the best thing is Osama Mama Patty Murray in a burka, getting around the "face of a living person" rule!

[BenLurkin]

There's not a dime's worth of difference between them.

[eastsider]

We don't have any plans to take the Old man off anything-- signs, license plates, etc. It's become the Spirit of the Old Man.

Thanks for the update. Being a New Hampshire native myself (Nashua), please know that I was just tossing off an idle comment, not a slur. In fact, for Christmas this year, everyone in my family got an "Old Man of the Mountain" quarter in their stockings.

In the Spirit of the Old Man, best wishes for a Bonne Annee!

[Cultural Jihad]

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/50sq_program/states/index.cfm?state=MO

[kaktuskid]

Thos "trees" look like broccoli stalks!

[Gabz]

Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware dreamed up the state quarters program in 1996

It wasn't enough to stir up trouble at home, was it Mikey-boy? You had to go and stir it up everywhere.

Don't anyone get me wrong, I like the quarters and am among those that keep some out of ciculation. I just have absolutely no use for Mike Castle.

[WestTexasWend]

"If Rhode Island gets a quarter, Texas ought to get at least a dozen different designs."


LOL...true. I was hoping for a lone star (on the coin,too), but as long as it's not LBJ, who can complain?

[The South Texan]

Anybody want to guess what the Arkansas state quarter might look like?

[exit82]

For that post---you should be sentenced to the penny-tentiary.

[hunter112]

When I saw the MO quarter I showed it to my wife, with the following scenario:

"Lewis, look!"
"What's that, Clark?"
"We've discovered McDonald's!"

[Ophiucus]

Anybody want to guess what the Arkansas state quarter might look like?

It has a big diamond and the ozarks....but you're right, Bubba in a trailor park and a car up on blocks would have been more fitting.