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PHOENIX - Arizona is going to be represented by the Grand Canyon and a saguaro on the minds - and in the pockets - of Americans.
Gov. Janet Napolitano will announce today that she has chosen the design for the new state quarter that includes perhaps the two most recognizable features of the state. Never mind there are no saguaros near the canyon. The drawing takes a bit of license.
It also includes a rising or setting sun: Not even members of the special commission which picked the design were sure.
And should anyone be unclear about whose coin it is, it will include the name of the state, the 1912 date it was admitted to the union, and the motto �The Grand Canyon State� emblazoned on a banner.
 Arizonans’ top design choice, left, and how the votes broke down. (Herald/Review graphic by Lynanne Gelinas) |
Napolitano�s choice also happens to be the top choice of the nearly 113,000 people who weighed in on the World Wide Web and, to a lesser extent, by phone, fax, mail and a suggestion box at the Capitol. It gathered 49,516 first-place votes; coin designs featuring just the saguaro and just the canyon were far back at 24,262 and 23,526 first-place votes, respectively.
A fourth design of Navajo code talkers, commemorating their role in World War II, tallied 12,474 votes. And the fifth showing the expedition of John Wesley Powell through the Grand Canyon, was far back at just 2,340 first-place votes.
But it will be a year before Arizonans � or anyone � gets to look at the state�s two-bit coin. The U.S. Mint has set a May 2008 release date.
All five finalists actually were selected by the Arizona State Quarter Commission which reviewed various suggestions, both for content and, for lack of a better word, draw-ability. The coins had to be able to depict the scene given both the limited size of the quarter and the restrictions on how high or deep the stamping could be.
And some ideas were rejected for political or other reasons.
For example one commission member suggested a Hopi Kachina might be an effective way to represent something unique to Arizona. But that idea was jettisoned, not only because it meant singling out one tribe but also because of the belief that there were still a lot of raw feelings about the partition of Navajo and Hopi lands and the forced relocations.
And a suggestion to use San Xavier mission south of Tucson was dismissed because it remains an active Catholic church.
Even the decision to select Powell making his way down the Colorado River was fraught with concerns over political correctness. Committee members insisted the inscription should say that Powell was �exploring� the Grand Canyon, as Native Americans might take offense as a suggestion he �discovered� what they knew was there all along.
The U.S. Mint began issuing state quarters in 1989. Those release dates are based on order of entry into the Union; Arizona, as the 48th state, is trailed only by Alaska and Hawaii.
New state quarter
Design 1st place Total
votes points*
Grand 23,526 382,252
Canyon
Canyon 49,516 427,062
& saguaro
Saguaro 24,262 365,722
Powell 2,340 196,011
expedition
Code talkers 12,474 211,181
* Weighted system based on 5 points for 1st pick, 4 points for 2nd pick, etc.
Martie wrote on May 1, 2007 8:49 AM: