State Quarters

The 50 State Quarters program is the release of a series of commemorative coins by the United States Mint. Between 1999 and 2008 (anticipated completion date), it features each of the United States' 50 individual U.S. states on unique designs for the reverse of the quarter.

Controversy

Missouri state quarter

In March 2001, Missouri?s First Lady, Lori Holden, announced a contest to design Missouri?s State Quarter. 3,300 designs were submitted. Decided through a series of votes, the overwhelming favorite was that of Missouri artist, Paul Jackson, of Columbia.

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The winning design was sent to the US Mint in May 2001, but the Mint engraver?s interpretation wasn?t revealed until April 2002. Jackson?s original design had been ?dumbed down? considerably; the Mint even managed to misspell the essential word "bicentennial." Public criticism and embarrassment compelled the Mint to try again.

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The Mint claimed that Jackson?s design was uncoinable. Thirty two private mints, however, said this was not true. The National Collector?s Mint ultimately minted Jackson?s design.

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The Mint claimed that Jackson?s design was ?historically inaccurate.? Jackson responded that his design was ?symbolic? of Lewis & Clark and the spirit of exploration. Critics also pointed out that none of the Mint?s attempts were any more historically accurate, and they couldn?t seem to get the shape of the Gateway Arch correct.

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When Jackson asked Missouri Governor Holden to resubmit his original winning design for review, the Governor refused. He claimed there ?never was a contest,? despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The first lady said she ?never asked for designs, only ideas.? But a circular design template was included with the official entry form. Jackson led a small public protest at the Missouri State Capitol that caught media attention.

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Jackson simply wanted a straight answer to why his original design couldn?t be used. The artist continued his protest in Washington D.C., rolling a four foot diameter representation of a Missouri quarter down Pennsylvania Ave, from the White House to the US Mint Headquarters building. The Mint refused to meet with Jackson to answer his questions.

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Frustrated by the government, the artist created stickers of his original design and affixed them to the reverse side of 250,000 quarters. He spent the quarters and gave them away, leaving a trail of them across America.

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When word of Jackson?s creative protest reached the US Mint, spokesperson Doug Hecox called the Associated Press, claiming Jackson was under Secret Service investigation for the Federal crime of defacing money. Jackson went to Washington to turn himself in to the Secret Service, who was unaware of any such investigation.

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US Mint officials finally agreed to meet with the artist, but still refused to answer any direct questions about why the design chosen by the State of Missouri could not be minted. However, it was revealed by one Mint spokesperson ?to have your initials on a circulating US coin would be worth millions.? He said to the artist, ?Why would we give you that honor??

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In August 2003, the US Mint released their version of Jackson?s design for the Missouri State Quarter. After three attempts, it was still lacking in design in comparison to the original. Governor Holden assured Missourians that the Mint would at least fix the shape of the Arch. However, the design remained misshapen.

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Although the US Mint snubbed Paul Jackson, his efforts helped other state quarter artists receive recognition from their states for their work, although not from the US Mint. The official record at the US Mint credits only the engraver with the quarter design.

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Following Jackson?s protest, the Mint immediately changed the program, eliminating the words ?design contest? and the design template. For future state quarters, only written descriptions are accepted.

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Paul Jackson's stickered quarters continue to surface.

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Wisconsin state quarter

The U.S. Mint designed the state quarters series, not as a potentially valuable collectible, but as a way of spurring interest in U.S. coinage - which had seen relatively few changes in design in the past 50 years - and in U.S. history. While mintage totals of the various designs vary widely ?- Virginia quarters are almost four times more abundant than Maine issues ? none of the regular circulating issues are sufficiently rare enough to become valuable investments. There was, however, a measure of collector interest and controversy over misprintings of the Wisconsin quarter. Some designs feature corn without a smaller leaf, others feature a small leaf pointing upwards, and still others have the leaf bending down. A set of all three quarters from the Philadelphia mint sold on eBay in February 2005 for $300.

Related Topics:
Collectible - U.S. history. - EBay

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No other variations on any other state quarter issues have been noted as of 2005.

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See http://www.snopes.com/business/money/quarter.asp for some further details on the variations in the Wisconsin quarter reverse.

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