Retrospect: Should The US Mint Have Created All The Designs For The State Quarter Program?

WWW

While empowering a state to come up with it's own design is a noble ambition, do you think,
given all the horrid designs, that it was a mistake? Furthermore, what was the reasoning
behind implementing the State Quarter Program in the first place?

My apologies if I missed an earlier thread about this subject.

Steve27

" Should The US Mint Have Created All The Designs For The State Quarter Program?"

No, I think the states should all be given the chance to screw-up coin designs as well.

"...what was the reasoning behind implementing the State Quarter Program in the first place?"

The congress felt the mint was being unreasonable in charging large amounts of money for commemoratives, so they decided to come up with commemoratives which would be available at face value. (Of course the mint got around that idea with their over-priced bags and rolls.)

flaminio

I don't think necessarily that the Mint should have created the designs. However, I do think they should have been a bit more explicit about what the design process should be. Such as:

* No state outlines.
* No designs from schoolchildren or committees -- only artists.
* No random clipart -- design should be a single theme evocative of the state

... and so on.

meos1

Flaminio:

Good call. I think your right on. I would also like to add that I believe the prestige sets would have ben an excellent marketing stream for these coins as it would have placed the appropriate format and therefore, price point. Of course, it would have also destroyed widespread acceptance of the SQs.

Dan

Conder101

When the program started the mint said they didn't want to see state trees, state flowers, state flags, or portraits of actual people. I don't remeber if they said they didn't want state outlines. All of them were ignored and we have state quarters now with outlines, state birds, trees, and I think it's Alabama which will have Helen Keller on theirs. Of couse the Mint ignored their own "rules" as well. Mississippi never submitted any designs so the mint staff created the whole design in house. And we got the state tree with the state flower.

ClausUrch

Personally, I think that Mississippi has one of the nicest designs out of the series; sort of reminds me of the Dolly Madison Commemorative designed by Tiffany.

dpoole

I agree. I think the Mississippi design is simple, clean and very nice. Most of the states' efforts look altogether like design by committee, with a bunch on junk piled on the state outlines. There have been noteble and encouraging exceptions, like New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia and Connecticut, but they seem to be getting worse as they go along.

DHeath

I liked the eagle reverse, and really am surprised when I see a nice one in my change. We'll really miss it pretty soon. Funny thing about change in coinage, initially the new design is cool, and soon enough I get nostalgic. I might feel differently if they had done the spaghetti hair on the eagle.

CYBERKEN

Perhaps 2 or three states will come up with legitimate art. So far, most of them look like they were designed by 3rd graders. OTOH, there are very few artists in our declining culture who can be trusted to produce anything with decent taste. Just look at the National Endowment for the Art's disasters of the last 40 years...

fcloud

I don't think it matters we still would either have the state and federal governments involved or just the federal. No difference.

FatMan

Let the states have their fun.

The problem is the low relief of the coins. Some of these designs could be wonderful in higher relief. I understand the production reasons for the business strikes, but why can't they produce the proofs in higher relief?

robertpr

I totally agree that there should have been clearly set rules about the designs from the start, and the number one rule should be no friggin' state outlines, you STUPID MORONS!!!! Argh! I mean come on, there HAS to be something better to put on a quarter. Apparently, very few people want their states to be known as centers of artistic expression and fine taste.

Now usually I would dogpile onto any opportunity to bash the Mint for the quality of their designs, but I actually like the Mississippi quarter and I think they did a very nice job of it. I like the Mississippi and Connecticut quarters best of all, although they both feature vegitation which would be one of the last things I would stick on a quarter. New York had a great opportunity to feature just the SOL (among other things) on their quarter but they had to ruin it and stick an outline of their state in there too. Freaks. I think just about everyone knows what New York looks like and if they don't they should be studying maps, not quarters.

I also like the Delaware quarter. Not that it's aesthetically the best but it does have a central theme, no state outline, no clutter. Well done, IMHO.

Now, if only they would put some more relief back into the coinage, and shoot any jack*ss who wants to put another state outline on their quarter, this could have been a great program.

(p.s. I can see D.C., but the territories do not need their own quarters! What's next, a Canada quarter because they border the US?)

coppercoins

Fatman hit the nail square on the head with the relief issue. You can't have a nice coin with a flat design...period. Doesn't matter what dysfunctional institution of politics is rendering the amateruistic "art". If anyone ever wants St. Gauden's-like art on their coins again, they're going to have to convince the mint to go back to the old ways of making coins - if for nothing else, at least the proof and mint sets.

satootoko

<< <i>most of them look like they were designed by 3rd graders >>



Or 3rd party graders on a coffee break!

jeffnpcb

Oh Crap!! Are you talking about our new Florida quarter! I wish they had just put the Santa Maria on the sea to the left, the shuttle heading into space on the right with a moon in the middle! The outline completely destroys the motto for the gateway to discovery!

CarlWohlforth

I think there is pretty good balance between State and National powers. I am all for letting the States come up with a design that meets Federal guidelines.

I also think I am about the only one who likes many State Quarter designs! I just love ships on coins. I love flowers. I don't hate geographic State outlines. South Carolina and Mass have them and I like those. Maryland is simple. N.H. has that granite rock face. I climbed those mountains when I was a teenager. I could think of other nice things to say if I had more of them in front of me as I type...

indianabyron

Come on now the state quarter progam is just indicative of the whole system. MASS PRODUCTION. Low relief bad ideas. Yes I do agree so far the only one I even remotely like is the Mississippi. You need to ask why. Well its because its such a simple design to many have tried to incorperate to much on the quarter. Look at the quarter there is only 22.3mm inside of the rim. Toooooo many states are trying to put 100mm of design on them. In this case they forgot the acronym kiss (keep it simple stupid). No they have gone into trying to fill every usable mm on the quarter.

In the case of Mississippi if the mint designed it then they did a good job even if they went against their own set of criteria. My personal hopes for the remainder of the quarter program is that at least 1 state comes or has the guts to put forward a great design that puts to shame all the other state designs.


As a side bar on this look at the process of coins What I mean by that take for example the nickle if I didnt know better virginia owns the nickle. They put forward bills that would require the return to the Jefferson and Monticello. Thats utter crap how can they act like they own the design or the nickle for that matter. They put forward that if its changed they would lose out on people visiting their state because they wouldnt know jefferson or Monticello exhist. SOOOOOOOO what the nickle isnt advertising for Virginia or Jefferson or Monticello.

Come on all people who collect Coins or Currency. Let take back our money. All the designs are old stale and need to be changed. Let the artist design the new coins and currency. Use higher relief in the designs. Its time for the change to take place. There to many odliecrats( old geezers in political office) governing how everything should be. Its not needed


Ok enough of me bantering on I stop now


Byron

baccaruda

i agree byron,

the mississippi quarter is probably my favorite even though they did exactly what they weren't supposed to. it's a nice simple design without clutter.

WWW

Weren't the 1999 state quarters all done by commissioned artists selected by the
respective state governors and force feed recommendations by the mint due to
their FYI prominence? I don't know and I'm curious only because I'm bored.

baccaruda

well, i guess saying the states get to "choose their own reverse" is quite a euphemism. the mint gets the final say on the design and there's been quite a bit of controversy over just that. missouri's coin chosen by the people was very nice, it was replaced with an ugly cluttered pile of junk.

actually one of the SQ designers (he's had like 2-3 of his designs used) frequents this board on occasion.

flaminio

<< <i>I could think of other nice things to say if I had more of them in front of me as I type... >>



Here ya' go:

http://coins.flaminio.com/sq.htm

fire away...

IndianHeadMan

Could be worse in KS the High School kids get the deciding vote on which coin design is accepted. I sure hope it looks like the Centineal Medal that Kansas designed.

baccaruda

well, i guess the final isn't so bad:




still, it falls far short of the original design:




originally the change was supposed to be "historically accurate". someone actually approved this design. the motto "corps of discovery" should be replaced with "cuban refugee raft".