Statehood Quarters

Wow…I forgot about this series for four months. Whoops! Anyway, time to finish up the whole thing with the last batch of quarters. Idaho I think I have to be nice here, since my in-laws all live in Idaho, but I don’t care for this quarter. It’s design-by-committee again: the head of an eagle, a state outline, and the motto. Bonus points for the Latin, though. Idaho’s quarter: $0.12 Nevada Here’s another quarter where multiple design elements manage to work together. I’d have made the main image clearer, though, by ditching the flowers vining up the sides; the running horsesDown the rabbit hole….

Oops, I seem to have once again gone quite some time without updating this series…I gotta quit spending so much time on Facebook and looking for food-related porn. Anyway, let’s continue rating the Statehood Quarters! Kansas I can’t be mean about a quarter that features a grazing buffalo. It’s a simple design that works well. (And to be honest, if any state was going to include their motto, I’d have picked Kansas, since I like their motto – As astra per aspera, “To the stars through hardship” – a great deal. Kansas’s quarter: $0.19 South Dakota Is the South DakotaDown the rabbit hole….

Continuing my look at each of the Statehood Quarters, we turn our attention to the South and Southwest. Yay! Kentucky I like what they do here, although I think it would work better as an action picture rather than a staid view of a horse just standing there; plus, the mansion in the background makes the image a little too busy for my tastes. I think a jockey riding a horse on a track might have been a better way to go. The motto, “My Old Kentucky Home”, is presented in quotes, which I find interesting. Kentucky’s quarter: $0.18 TennesseeDown the rabbit hole….

Clearly this series of posts isn’t impressing anybody, because nobody has bothered to remind me about it! But anyway, we’ll continue now, picking up with Ohio: Ohio The first time I looked at Ohio’s quarter, my reaction was, “Huh?” It’s the ever-boring state outline, with a picture of the Wright Brothers’ airplane prototype and a spacesuited astronaut, explained by the helpful motto: “Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers”. The Wright Brothers were born here, that’s obvious, but who’s the astronaut? Was it just John Glenn, or others? So Ohio used its quarter to honor famous people who did their famous things someplaceDown the rabbit hole….

I launched this series a month ago, intending to update it every couple of weeks or so; then, intervening events threw it right out of my mind, until now. If anyone’s been waiting for this, sorry! And now, continuing my examination of the Statehood Quarters. Virginia Here we have a quarter deliberately trying to tie itself in with pop culture, with Virginia riding the coat-tails of Disney’s movie Pocahantas, which had come out seven or eight years earlier. How shameless is that! OK, just kidding there. The founding of the Jamestown colony is, obviously, one of the most important eventsDown the rabbit hole….

Here’s a lark that seems to me to be exactly why blogs were invented: I’m going to opine on all fifty of the Statehood Quarters! Now that all fifty are in circulation (or at least have had their designs released), it’s time to either praise them or rip them to shreds. The disclaimer here is that when I make fun of a quarter that I think stinks, I’m attacking the quarter. Not the state. The quarter. Just because I may think your state’s quarter is poorly designed doesn’t mean I don’t like your state, or you. (Of course, the reverseDown the rabbit hole….