the annual quarterly report
Dec. 15th, 2005 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacA visit to a store to get something sweet for my B. got me a West Virginia quarter hot from the presses, so now I have all five of the 2005 issues. These take us from California, whose 1850 admission broke the free-slave state balance enshrined in the Compromise of 1820 (but though California was a free state, its early elected officials, notably its senators, were mostly Democrats of the easy-on-slavery variety known at the time as "doughfaces"), through Minnesota and Oregon, and Kansas, whose admission right at the start of the Civil War broke a violent six-year argument over whether it was to be a free or slave state (and changing the state's image from "Bloody Kansas" to "Auntie Em! There's no place like home!"), and finally West Virginia, the state with the strangest admission in all U.S. history. When Virginia seceded to join the Confederates, a large part of the hill country, where there were few slave-owners, simply refused to go. (One hill country native who did go was T.J. Jackson, soon to be known as "Stonewall".) They held a convention, elected a loyalist state legislature and members of Congress, and operated as the legitimist Virginia state government for two years. Eventually they gave permission for their part of the state to secede from Virginia and form a new state, which for a bit was going to be called Kanawha. For a few months, West Virginia was the only state in the union to have had four senators at once.
So, let's review the quarters.
California: way too crowded. You've got John Muir trying to look at Half Dome through this giant bird that looks like it's about to fly into his face. Somebody should remind these designers that their work is going to appear on a disk less than an inch in diameter. Although I'd rather scramble around the mountains than be a beach bunny, I liked a rejected design that showed stylized waves beneath a stylized sun. That would have been really striking. Our loss. (UPDATE: Found an image of the design I liked.)
Minnesota: The only one of this year's batch with the outline of the state on it. Also has the state motto on the outline. Two tiny fishermen, facing in the wrong direction to hook the giant loon that's about to butt its head against their boat. (One of those things about bas-relief engraving: no real depth to it.)
Oregon: This is pretty nice - a genuine pictorial view of Crater Lake, a truly beautiful spot. (And quite a surprise when it was discovered.) I've actually been on the island in the middle of the picture.
Kansas: A weird semi-head-on view of a buffalo. At least it's striking, and designed to be easily seen on a tiny metal disk. It's interesting that, where Florida chose to feature the motor vehicle that most famously crashed within its territory, Kansas has chosen to feature the animal most famously killed by the millions in its territory. Should Ohio or somewhere like that have used the passenger pigeon? So where we once had the buffalo nickel, now we have the buffalo quarter. B. thinks that the buffalo looks as if it's about to plant a buffalo pie.
West Virginia: a bridge over a gorge. Another nice scenic view. I had to look it up to find out where exactly in the state this bridge is. I've been to West Virginia four times, but never anywhere near here, which turns out to be on Highway 19 near Fayetteville, southeast of Charleston. There's an impressive river bridge near my home which you can drive over without ever realizing you're on a bridge at all; although it's hard to measure a bridge's impressiveness when you're on it, this one does not look like it can be ignored by those crossing it.
Next year's designs have not been announced on the Mint web site yet.
So, let's review the quarters.
California: way too crowded. You've got John Muir trying to look at Half Dome through this giant bird that looks like it's about to fly into his face. Somebody should remind these designers that their work is going to appear on a disk less than an inch in diameter. Although I'd rather scramble around the mountains than be a beach bunny, I liked a rejected design that showed stylized waves beneath a stylized sun. That would have been really striking. Our loss. (UPDATE: Found an image of the design I liked.)
Minnesota: The only one of this year's batch with the outline of the state on it. Also has the state motto on the outline. Two tiny fishermen, facing in the wrong direction to hook the giant loon that's about to butt its head against their boat. (One of those things about bas-relief engraving: no real depth to it.)
Oregon: This is pretty nice - a genuine pictorial view of Crater Lake, a truly beautiful spot. (And quite a surprise when it was discovered.) I've actually been on the island in the middle of the picture.
Kansas: A weird semi-head-on view of a buffalo. At least it's striking, and designed to be easily seen on a tiny metal disk. It's interesting that, where Florida chose to feature the motor vehicle that most famously crashed within its territory, Kansas has chosen to feature the animal most famously killed by the millions in its territory. Should Ohio or somewhere like that have used the passenger pigeon? So where we once had the buffalo nickel, now we have the buffalo quarter. B. thinks that the buffalo looks as if it's about to plant a buffalo pie.
West Virginia: a bridge over a gorge. Another nice scenic view. I had to look it up to find out where exactly in the state this bridge is. I've been to West Virginia four times, but never anywhere near here, which turns out to be on Highway 19 near Fayetteville, southeast of Charleston. There's an impressive river bridge near my home which you can drive over without ever realizing you're on a bridge at all; although it's hard to measure a bridge's impressiveness when you're on it, this one does not look like it can be ignored by those crossing it.
Next year's designs have not been announced on the Mint web site yet.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 04:09 pm (UTC)Nice topic, chaver.
I rather like the California design, actually, and thought the sun-of-a-beach design was too abstract and, well, deco, to represent the State. And, yes, the Oregon quarter is quite nice. But I think Kansas (the other one I haven't got yet) the clear winner of this year's designs.
My favorite design to date, however, remains Maine; I think the lighthouse design captures the feeling of the state better than any other. I also really like the Kentucky design.
Two that get special "WTF?!" (oh how I wish for an interabang key) prizes are Alabama -- yeah, the first thing I think of when I think of Alabammy is Helen Keller, riiiiight -- and Ohio, whose designers couldn't think of anything about the state to celebrate except for some native sons whose accomplishments were performed elsewhere. Okay, maybe the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame design was a loser, but surely there's something in the state you want to commemorate, people?
no subject
Date: 2005-12-17 02:02 am (UTC)Ohio, like Vermont, is noted as the birthplace of a lot of people who went elsewhere. (And searching for the bridge in West Virginia I let my eye cross the map border into Virginia where I saw a historic site, "Birthplace of Stephen F. Austin," whom I honestly hadn't known came from Virginia.) Besides, Ohio has been fighting with North Carolina over honors for the Wright Brothers for years, and I'm sure that as soon as Ohio learned that N.C. was going to put the Kitty Hawk flight on their quarter, battle was joined.
The virtue of the Maine quarter in my eyes is not so much that it's echt Maine, though it is, as that it's a fairly good design for a quarter. A couple I like better yet in that respect, but I'll save my total evaluation for when the whole lot is finished.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-17 05:19 am (UTC)northerly rivers
Date: 2005-12-17 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-18 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-18 01:08 am (UTC)