the irregularly biannual quarterly report
Apr. 7th, 2011 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacI enjoyed collecting the 50 state quarters that the US Mint issued 1999-2008. What made it fun is that I found them all by hunting through my ordinary change. Unlike books, which once you collect them you can read, you can't do much with a coin collection once you have it. But getting it is fun.
The 50 states were followed by 6 territories in 2009 and a national parks set initiated last year. But except for the District of Columbia, the first of the territories, I have seen none of these in my change. (Interestingly, though I've visited all 50 states, D.C. is the only one of the territories I've been to. Guam? I think I'll take a pass.)
But if I can't find them in my change, I can find them in the mail as a present from my equally trivia-obsessed brother: all six territory quarters and the first six national parks issues. So, time for an evaluative report:
District of Columbia: Duke Ellington. At a piano, so you know who he is. OK, famous dead guy who was actually from the place; that's reasonable. Good thing Pat Buchanan, the only other famous D.C. native I can think of offhand, isn't dead and thus isn't qualified; the Republicans in Congress would probably make them put him on instead.
Puerto Rico: Well, that's pretty: stone sentry box and flower set against a distant shoreline. Makes me think more attracted thoughts to a place I knew previously only from the song "America" in West Side Story and as Richard Bergeron's retirement lair, not connotations designed to produce warm feelings.
Guam: A map. Probably close to life size. And a couple random symbols: a flimsy-looking sailboat and a ... what is that, anyway? A heavy goblet? Apparently it's actually the midget version of the giant stone pillar from the Mariana Islands.
American Samoa, a name that always sounds like a contradiction in terms: More symbols. I really could not figure out what these were until I looked it up. It's a ceremonial drinking bowl and a staff of rank. And a palm tree, because, you know, not every tropical island has palm trees.
Virgin Islands: Hairy palm trees! And a bird and a flower. And what look like either badly drawn clouds or three mutant whales floating in the sky, but which are actually maps of the islands.
Northern Mariana Islands: Another attractive island scene, with a sturdier-looking sail boat than they have on Guam, and what looks like a mutant mushroom but turns out to be a giant stone pillar, just out in the middle of nowhere because it can. And ... palm trees.
Now the big difference between the state (and territory) quarters and the national parks (and national forests, etc.) quarters is that you can read the name on the state quarters. It's very hard to read the legend on the new design, so I pretty much have to take the mint's word on what they're of.
What interests me is that I've been to all six of these places.
Hot Springs, Arkansas: Well, I like a fancy door. What neither this image, nor anything I'd ever read about Hot Springs, conveys is the way that the army & navy hospital, built on top of the mountain right in the middle of town, just looms over everything like Edward Scissorhands' castle.
Yellowstone, Wyoming (and, as residents of the neighboring states are eager to remind you, Montana and Idaho, too, though I bet not one Idahoan in a thousand has ever been in the Idaho part of the park, which can only be reached by taking a twenty-mile hike): Let me tell you about Old Faithful Geyser. It's not that faithful. You can stand there for a long time waiting for it to go off, and then it sort of puffs. The geyser we have close to home in Calistoga is a lot more reliable, and less festooned with railings to keep tourists from falling in. You don't see the railings on the quarter. One thing you see on the quarter that you won't see there in reality is a bison, which have far too much sense than to stand immediately downwind from a blasting geyser.
Yosemite, California: Yeah, it looks pretty much like its picture. The mountain is about that color, too.
Grand Canyon, Arizona: Well, that view of the Grand Canyon I never had, because I didn't actually get down into the canyon. I did venture a little ways down Bright Angel Trail, but not very far, because the mules had ventured down it first. So: Grand Canyon, from above. Yep, it's big.
Mount Hood, Oregon: I've never actually been on Mt. Hood, but this quarter technically commemorates the National Forest, and I've been in the National Forest, so that counts. This is a view of the mountain from a distance, and you can hardly avoid seeing the mountain in the distance from anywhere in the Portland area. There are mountains like this all over the north Cascades - Seattle and Tacoma fight over which one lays claim to Mt. Rainier - and sometimes (Mazama, St. Helens) they go off.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: I went to Gettysburg, on the memorable day that I set foot in eight states in one day, because I was interested in the topography of the Missionary Ridge part of the battle. What did the rebels see as they were looking up into the face of the Union artillery; what did the Feds see looking down? What I mostly saw was what you see on the quarter: monuments. Just these big monuments everywhere, to regiments with numbers not easy to remember.
The 50 states were followed by 6 territories in 2009 and a national parks set initiated last year. But except for the District of Columbia, the first of the territories, I have seen none of these in my change. (Interestingly, though I've visited all 50 states, D.C. is the only one of the territories I've been to. Guam? I think I'll take a pass.)
But if I can't find them in my change, I can find them in the mail as a present from my equally trivia-obsessed brother: all six territory quarters and the first six national parks issues. So, time for an evaluative report:
District of Columbia: Duke Ellington. At a piano, so you know who he is. OK, famous dead guy who was actually from the place; that's reasonable. Good thing Pat Buchanan, the only other famous D.C. native I can think of offhand, isn't dead and thus isn't qualified; the Republicans in Congress would probably make them put him on instead.
Puerto Rico: Well, that's pretty: stone sentry box and flower set against a distant shoreline. Makes me think more attracted thoughts to a place I knew previously only from the song "America" in West Side Story and as Richard Bergeron's retirement lair, not connotations designed to produce warm feelings.
Guam: A map. Probably close to life size. And a couple random symbols: a flimsy-looking sailboat and a ... what is that, anyway? A heavy goblet? Apparently it's actually the midget version of the giant stone pillar from the Mariana Islands.
American Samoa, a name that always sounds like a contradiction in terms: More symbols. I really could not figure out what these were until I looked it up. It's a ceremonial drinking bowl and a staff of rank. And a palm tree, because, you know, not every tropical island has palm trees.
Virgin Islands: Hairy palm trees! And a bird and a flower. And what look like either badly drawn clouds or three mutant whales floating in the sky, but which are actually maps of the islands.
Northern Mariana Islands: Another attractive island scene, with a sturdier-looking sail boat than they have on Guam, and what looks like a mutant mushroom but turns out to be a giant stone pillar, just out in the middle of nowhere because it can. And ... palm trees.
Now the big difference between the state (and territory) quarters and the national parks (and national forests, etc.) quarters is that you can read the name on the state quarters. It's very hard to read the legend on the new design, so I pretty much have to take the mint's word on what they're of.
What interests me is that I've been to all six of these places.
Hot Springs, Arkansas: Well, I like a fancy door. What neither this image, nor anything I'd ever read about Hot Springs, conveys is the way that the army & navy hospital, built on top of the mountain right in the middle of town, just looms over everything like Edward Scissorhands' castle.
Yellowstone, Wyoming (and, as residents of the neighboring states are eager to remind you, Montana and Idaho, too, though I bet not one Idahoan in a thousand has ever been in the Idaho part of the park, which can only be reached by taking a twenty-mile hike): Let me tell you about Old Faithful Geyser. It's not that faithful. You can stand there for a long time waiting for it to go off, and then it sort of puffs. The geyser we have close to home in Calistoga is a lot more reliable, and less festooned with railings to keep tourists from falling in. You don't see the railings on the quarter. One thing you see on the quarter that you won't see there in reality is a bison, which have far too much sense than to stand immediately downwind from a blasting geyser.
Yosemite, California: Yeah, it looks pretty much like its picture. The mountain is about that color, too.
Grand Canyon, Arizona: Well, that view of the Grand Canyon I never had, because I didn't actually get down into the canyon. I did venture a little ways down Bright Angel Trail, but not very far, because the mules had ventured down it first. So: Grand Canyon, from above. Yep, it's big.
Mount Hood, Oregon: I've never actually been on Mt. Hood, but this quarter technically commemorates the National Forest, and I've been in the National Forest, so that counts. This is a view of the mountain from a distance, and you can hardly avoid seeing the mountain in the distance from anywhere in the Portland area. There are mountains like this all over the north Cascades - Seattle and Tacoma fight over which one lays claim to Mt. Rainier - and sometimes (Mazama, St. Helens) they go off.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: I went to Gettysburg, on the memorable day that I set foot in eight states in one day, because I was interested in the topography of the Missionary Ridge part of the battle. What did the rebels see as they were looking up into the face of the Union artillery; what did the Feds see looking down? What I mostly saw was what you see on the quarter: monuments. Just these big monuments everywhere, to regiments with numbers not easy to remember.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 05:08 pm (UTC)As for the new series, I find it amusing that Puerto Rico is #11 while Massachusetts is #46 (since the Lowell NHP wasn't created until 1978).
no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-09 03:08 pm (UTC)Because of that, I just couldn't get up steam to focus on the Territories and now the Parks. When I do see them, I just sort of shrug.
That said, I do always enjoy reading your evaluations of them.
Guam
Date: 2011-04-10 06:56 am (UTC)Richard
University of Guam,'72-'74