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Wash. DC plus PR & territories quarter bill passes House of Representatives
Michigan
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It's not exactly voting rights, but the District is one step closer to having its own quarter.
The House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting representative, that would allow the nation's capital to submit a design for the reverse side of a quarter, meaning the city soon could join the 50 states in having a customized coin.
"People take great pride that some insignia of their state -- whether it's a flower or a shape of the state or a favorite landmark -- is actually on a circulating quarter," said Mrs. Norton, a Democrat. "If it means something to people in the states, you can imagine what it would mean to people who don't have full voting rights."
Mrs. Norton introduced the bill Jan. 10. The House passed the measure four times in previous years, but the Senate blocked each attempt.
With Democrats now in control of the Senate, Mrs. Norton is optimistic that the bill will survive this time.
One of the bill's sponsors is Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which will have jurisdiction over the bill.
"The fifth time has got to be the magic moment," said Mrs. Norton, who emphasized that the victory for a coin still pales to congressional voting rights. "I am optimistic that now [that Mr. Dodd is in] control he will be able to get it through the Senate."
President Clinton signed the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act into law in December 1997, according to the U.S. Mint, but the District was not included.
Mrs. Norton's bill also expands the program to include American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Suggestions for the D.C. coin's design range from serious to sarcastic. Ideas include historical images such as Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington, the Capital Beltway and the panda, but another was the depiction of tourists on the Mall handing their wallets to a smiling mugger.
"I would put a parrot" on the quarter, D.C. cabdriver Clement Olaniyan said yesterday. "A parrot talks too much and D.C. is a noisy place."
Under the program, 21 billion quarters representing 40 states have been minted, contributing $6 billion to the U.S. Treasury.
Original guidelines require the designs to be "emblematic" of the states and prohibit portraits of any living person.
Designs on quarters in circulation include New York's Statue of Liberty, Maryland's State House in Annapolis and Virginia's depiction of the three ships that brought the first English settlers to Jamestown.
The House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting representative, that would allow the nation's capital to submit a design for the reverse side of a quarter, meaning the city soon could join the 50 states in having a customized coin.
"People take great pride that some insignia of their state -- whether it's a flower or a shape of the state or a favorite landmark -- is actually on a circulating quarter," said Mrs. Norton, a Democrat. "If it means something to people in the states, you can imagine what it would mean to people who don't have full voting rights."
Mrs. Norton introduced the bill Jan. 10. The House passed the measure four times in previous years, but the Senate blocked each attempt.
With Democrats now in control of the Senate, Mrs. Norton is optimistic that the bill will survive this time.
One of the bill's sponsors is Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which will have jurisdiction over the bill.
"The fifth time has got to be the magic moment," said Mrs. Norton, who emphasized that the victory for a coin still pales to congressional voting rights. "I am optimistic that now [that Mr. Dodd is in] control he will be able to get it through the Senate."
President Clinton signed the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act into law in December 1997, according to the U.S. Mint, but the District was not included.
Mrs. Norton's bill also expands the program to include American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Suggestions for the D.C. coin's design range from serious to sarcastic. Ideas include historical images such as Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington, the Capital Beltway and the panda, but another was the depiction of tourists on the Mall handing their wallets to a smiling mugger.
"I would put a parrot" on the quarter, D.C. cabdriver Clement Olaniyan said yesterday. "A parrot talks too much and D.C. is a noisy place."
Under the program, 21 billion quarters representing 40 states have been minted, contributing $6 billion to the U.S. Treasury.
Original guidelines require the designs to be "emblematic" of the states and prohibit portraits of any living person.
Designs on quarters in circulation include New York's Statue of Liberty, Maryland's State House in Annapolis and Virginia's depiction of the three ships that brought the first English settlers to Jamestown.
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Comments
<< <i>Suggestions for the D.C. coin's design range from serious to sarcastic. Ideas include historical images such as Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington, the Capital Beltway and the panda >>
Huh?
<< <i>but another was the depiction of tourists on the Mall handing their wallets to a smiling mugger. >>
or congressman.
<< <i>Original guidelines require the designs to be "emblematic" of the states and prohibit portraits of any living person. >>
Rats, no Marion Berry.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
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<< <i>Introducing this kind of political report makes the thread off-topic. The thread should be deleted. >>
If the politics results in five new U.S. coins, that makes it numismatic and eligible for this forum.
MOO
TD
Joe
<< <i>If the politics results in five new U.S. coins, that makes it numismatic and eligible for this forum.
MOO
TD >>
If it results in the proposed six, then it screws up my Harris album.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Six new U.S. coins.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>
<< <i>Introducing this kind of political report makes the thread off-topic. The thread should be deleted. >>
If the politics results in five new U.S. coins, that makes it numismatic and eligible for this forum.
MOO
TD >>
That's my point too. If the topic was introduced as "Should DC and US terrorities have their own quarters?" it would be fine. But, the writer chose to introduce politics into the thread by quoting the propoganda article, leaving out the fact this is the 5th time the same bill has been passed by the House, to be shot down again in the Senate.
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<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Introducing this kind of political report makes the thread off-topic. The thread should be deleted. >>
If the politics results in five new U.S. coins, that makes it numismatic and eligible for this forum.
MOO
TD >>
That's my point too. If the topic was introduced as "Should DC and US terrorities have their own quarters?" it would be fine. But, the writer chose to introduce politics into the thread by quoting the propoganda article, leaving out the fact this is the 5th time the same bill has been passed by the House, to be shot down again in the Senate. >>
You don't read very carefully do you?
"The House passed the measure four times in previous years, but the Senate blocked each attempt."
Some of you people are so petty, it was a news article nothing more than that. I added or deleted nothing from it. Do you really think that people on here would not make political comments about it anyway whether or not some viewpoint was expressed in the article?
<< <i>[qIf the politics results in five new U.S. coins, that makes it numismatic and eligible for this forum. >>
Six new U.S. coins. >>
Yer right, six. The last time this bill went into the hopper it was for five coins. Which one is new? D.C.? It certainly isn't a Territory.
TD
And some posters here just don't get it. This is a coin forum, not a place for political articles that
starts about DC voting rights. Looks like you didn't read the article either before just posting that
garbage.
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<< <i>Some of you people are so petty, it was a news article nothing more than that.
And some posters here just don't get it. This is a coin forum, not a place for political articles that
starts about DC voting rights. Looks like you didn't read the article either before just posting that
garbage. >>
Oh give me a break, the article is saying that the issue is not as important as DC voting rights, it is offering
a contrast that is all. Coins and politics have been closely tied together since the beginning of the
US.
Could it be some people have a problem about D.C. getting a quarter just because it is a mostly African
American city and they don't like that idea? I expect that suggestion won't go over well and there
will be comments about how some of my best friends are African American etc. Yeah right.
Did you see the article in the latest Numismatist about CNMI coins? I think the author did a great disservice by talking up the NCLT aspect without commenting on the blatant illegality of the so-called coins.
<< <i>Hey, finally the CNMI might get their own coin. Maybe now the National Collectors Mint can stop making them.
Did you see the article in the latest Numismatist about CNMI coins? I think the author did a great disservice by talking up the NCLT aspect without commenting on the blatant illegality of the so-called coins. >>
It will also be interesting to see what effect the minting of quarters would
have for the old American Virgin Island's coins. Many of these are really
pretty scarce even compared to the Hawaian coins but they get little de-
mand. These were minted under the authority of the Danish West Indies
and are all scarce or rare in high grade.
Secondly.. the frog is the Coqui...and it is a Puerto Rican symbol... so it does have a place on the coin.
Cheers, RickO
If a living person was ok for placement on the coin, my vote for a DC coin would be either Amy Carter in a DC public school classroom (with Secret Service Agents on hand to prevent her from being harassed by her schoolmates) or Marion Berry in a hotel room smoking crack. I can not remember anything else connected with DC (outside of the federal government activities, or protests against same, or marches on Washington, or presidential funeral/memorial services, or politics, or pro sports team performances) that has happened in DC.
<< <i>If a living person was ok for placement on the coin, my vote for a DC coin would be either Amy Carter in a DC public school classroom (with Secret Service Agents on hand to prevent her from being harassed by her schoolmates) or Marion Berry in a hotel room smoking crack. I can not remember anything else connected with DC (outside of the federal government activities, or protests against same, or marches on Washington, or presidential funeral/memorial services, or politics, or pro sports team performances) that has happened in DC. >>
Man, and I thought *I* was jaded...
<< <i>If the law is passed and DC decides on a coin which exhibits a natural wonder (akin to Half Dome in Yosemite Valley), what "natural" wonder of DC would be on the coin? Is there such a thing?
If a living person was ok for placement on the coin, my vote for a DC coin would be either Amy Carter in a DC public school classroom (with Secret Service Agents on hand to prevent her from being harassed by her schoolmates) or Marion Berry in a hotel room smoking crack. I can not remember anything else connected with DC (outside of the federal government activities, or protests against same, or marches on Washington, or presidential funeral/memorial services, or politics, or pro sports team performances) that has happened in DC. >>
No. John Barth wrote disparagingly of this area in his book "The Sotweed Factor".
It is a 10 mile by 10 mile square piece of land carved out of mostly Maryland and Virginia
along the Potomac River. It was originally not especially attractive land with marshes and
bogs. It was used extensively for growing tobacco in its early years before becoming a
planned city and "non-voting" seat of the federal government after the Revolution.
My other comment was also partly made in jest (a possibly failed attempt at that) and partly made as an observation. The part of DC that is not affiliated with the Federal Government or private sector interests who would not exist but for the government (i.e. lobbying firms), including the persons who actually reside inside the DC limits has probably been an after thought ever since DC was created. The powers that be that have been charged with providing the for health and welfare of DC's citizens probably have never put this responsibility high on their list of priorities (since they are involved in and preoccupied with work that is so much more important and significant).
Has anyone ever studied and written about the history of DC since its creation and how good or bad the federal government has met its responsibility of providing for the health and welfare of the citizens of DC. I suspect that the government has failed miserably in this area, regardless of what criteria you use to measure its success or failure.
Again, beside Amy Carter in DC public schools and Marion Berry being caught smoking crack, I can not remember anything notable about DC not connected with the federal government and its operations.
Oops, I just remembered another, however it is not famous, it is infamous. I recall that DC has/had one of the highest if not the highest per capita murder rates in the country.
I guess DC just needs to pass one more gun control law so that those mean, evil guns will know that they simply can not, by themselves and without human intervention, point and shoot someone without dire consequences.
To return to the focus of the opening post, my own opinion is that a law that allows for DC and US territories to get into and participate in the State Quarters program is fine. Though they may not be "States", these areas are part of the USA. If extending the program by another year or so and expanding is scope to include DC and US Territories provides political and other benefits to multiple interest groups, fine with me. Heck it will make for more interest in coins and in the hobby, to the benefit of all collectors.
Further, maybe, just maybe, the good peoples in DC and the US territories will be more creative and artistic in their coinage designs so that we may actually see some beautiful "High Art" on some coins for a change.
TTFN.
But to expect 'High Art' to come from this area is like expecting to find a diamond in a shale quarry. Other than that, I am in complete agreement with your points.