December 19, 2007
District to Get Its Own Quarter
Christmas seems to have come early for the District.
Yesterday we reported that a congressional ban on needle-exchange programs was finally lifted and that we were getting our D.C. postmark back. Today we find out that the District will join the other 50 states and get its own quarter.
Buried in a larger article in the Post on a $515.7 billion spending bill that allocates funds for the District, the announcement was made with almost no fanfare:
The legislation provides hundreds of millions of dollars for the District. It includes the annual federal payment for D.C. courts, almost $224 million, as well as almost $48 million for defender services in family courts, according to a statement from Norton. It makes available $190 million to assist former prison inmates returning home to the city. It also includes millions for schools, sewers, libraries and a new forensics lab, among other projects...
The bill also will establish a quarter with an image representing the District, similar to coins commemorating the 50 states.
The 50 State Quarters program was kicked off by the U.S. Mint in 1999 and is slated to run through next year. Each state received their own customized quarter that was released in the order in which they joined the union. Of course, the District, Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories were left out of the program, though various members of Congress proposed extending it through 2009.
Now we'll have the fierce debate over what we actually want on our quarter. And being the democratic types that we are, we leave it up to you to decide. Make your vote count in our poll after the jump, because we hear someone somewhere in the Wilson Building reads DCist.
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If they used our kvetchy slogan on the quarter, I'd pay my Federal taxes solely with rolls of the damn things every year.
Definitely should put the No Taxation without Representation on the quarters! Those will be collectors items when there IS representation someday!
What -- no crack pipe? Isn't that our most enduring legacy? 1980s Washington: Never Forget!
Give the "taxation without representation" a rest, its only relevant to DC residents, we need something the resonates with the whole country. Therefore the Cherry Blossom Quarter should be in color, thus ending all the tourists need to see it for real.
Give the "taxation without representation" a rest, its only relevant to DC residents, we need something the resonates with the whole country. Therefore the Cherry Blossom Quarter should be in color, thus ending all the tourists need to see it for real.
Buildings? Flags? The Tidal Basin? Is there no love for the five-piece chicken wings and mambo sauce? Just license the album to Parliament's album Chocolate City. Then you'll know the money's going to a good cause.
"No Taxation Without Representation?" Try "Make My Funk the P-Funk, I Wants to Get Funked-up."
I can already imagine the heated debates about what image will best represent D.C.
Put Ian Svenonius on the quarter, damnit!
love the photoshopping of late!
Give the "taxation without representation" a rest, its only relevant to DC residents, we need something the resonates with the whole country. Therefore the Cherry Blossom Quarter should be in color, thus ending all the tourists need to see it for real.
Yeah, which Arkansas put a freakin' diamond, a duck and some trees on their quarter. And Iowa has a schoolhouse. Always the first things that come to mind when I think of those states.
I'm still chuckling at the suggestion on another story of Mr.T from DC Cab...
The Aristocrats!
COOL
"DISCO"
DAN
or Matthew Lesko/Jim Graham
We all know it's gonna be the Washington Monument in the center and some equally cliche stuff in the periphery. No use arguing it.
i voted "other" in the poll. just nothing federal, please god. let it be something "city of washington" not "federal washington". i like the idea of ben's, but i think that probably doesn't work.
"the awakening" would have been perfect, but those PG county bastards had to go and steal it from us.
how about fort reno?
christ, i'd rather have borf than the washington monument.
In case anybody was going to mention it, I'd vote against Pandas.
each new quarter can also help pay for the metro fare hike.
THAT'S IT!
It should have the smugly grinning BORF face on the obverse, with COOL "DISCO" DAN on the reverse! In Krylon we trust!
Chuck Brown. "We Need Some Money"
i second Matthew Lesko
Butterstick!
"Give the 'taxation without representation' a rest, its only relevant to DC residents, we need something the resonates with the whole country. "
It SHOULD be relevant to the whole country - and part of the problem is that most of the country doesn't even realize we have no representation.
Put it on the quarter and let everyone know that a country founded by a bunch of people resisting TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION is run in a city that hasn't progressed since the Revolution. How the heck is that not relevant to the rest of the country?
What about a condom? I mean everyone loves to f*ck with DC.
One side will read: Tales of the City and
The Other side will read: Heads of the City.
The picture on one side will be a half-smoke and the other picture will be a Starbucks.
Sadly, a D.C. quarter is worth just 21 cents.
But a $10 roll can still be used to beat the living crap out of someone.
Southeast Jerome might work.
A Congressman holding a big wad of bills, screwing a black man in the butt.
The memorials are already on all of our money. Something more unique and, as others have stated, DC-city-specific please!
By the way, is the moving of The Awakening a done deal? Can't something be done to stop it?
I vote for a crossed Glock & crack pipe done-up like the flag of Mozambique. Only thing missing would be some way of incorporating our massive homelessness problem into it...
dank - wrap the congressman's junk in a $100 bill and you're "good to go." just like the eponymous movie.
Martin, I have a copy of the DC quarter from 2004. The text says "JUSTICE TO ALL" with a view down the mall towards the Capitol. Its not legal tender, but it sure looks like a quarter to me, even with the COPY stamped on Jefferson's head. I took the liberty of scanning it for you. Should there be a redesign?
There are several different species of state quarters:
The Quick-and-easy: These are the ones with a single identifiable image. For instance New Jersey with the image of the Crossing of the Delaware, or New Hampshire with the Old Man in the Mountain. This approach seemed to be popular with the first bunch of states and probably resulted from fewer people being involved in the process. These are the best, in my opinion.
The Design-by-committee: By far the worst. These are those awful collage ones, where it's clear the committee couldn't decide on one unifying image. Wisconsin is a particularly good (or rather, bad) example of this, although I think Louisiana's is perhaps the worst.
The somebody-push-forward-a-kinda-lame-idea-and-nobody-had-the-will-to-push-back: These are the ones that you kinds scratch your head and go, "well, ok, I guess". For instance, Alabama. How many people would think of Helen Keller sitting in a chair when they think of Helen Keller. The Iowa schoolhouse is another example of this.
The vaguely outdoorsy type: Very popular in the later states. No less than three states feature a bison (or bison skull). We got away from the obligatory image of the state for a while, but then Idaho had to go and drop it in.
The end result is that states that focused more on what was to be represented in the quarter, rather than what it was going to look like, create the worst quarters. I have absolutely no faith that DC will avoid this pitfall. First of all, there will be a nod to African-American history (strong candidate would be Frederick Douglas, although my favorite dark horse candidate is Matthew Henson). Also, there's no way we'll avoid having an image of the District and the flag. Throw in a cherry tree branch. Maybe we'll get the representation slogan on, but I kinda doubt Congress will allow it. More likely we'll end up with some lame aphorism like "Diversity Embiggens The Smallest Man". And in the end, we'll be stuck with some stupid mush of an image.
But it will still be better than Louisiana's.
amen, reid.
i always appreciated the CT and DE quarters, as they kind of worked like a tease....you had to go look up what the images on them really meant, but it meant that you learned something, and you kinda felt good about that, like, "cool, that's interesting"
the "design by committee" quarters SUCK, and you can just tell they were favored by people who wear christmas sweaters.
and the "state outline" quarters blow too. no creativity there. my home state (michigan) swung and missed with their lame-ass state outline quarter (which could have been a state outline with extra special little crap around it, like the wisconsin quarter). at least we avoided that apocalyptic debacle.
I recommend going to the US Mint's site on the 50 State Quarters program and looking at how many are minted for each state. We have a chance to send any message we want on 500,000,000 to 1 billion coins. The quarter is by far the most commonly used coin, and DC has never had a way to get the Taxation Without Representation message out to people as thoroughly, widely, and easily as this quarter. Far more people will get a DC quarter than will ever see a DC license plate or flag. Coins have an average lifespan of 20-30 years, too--look at the dates on coins in your pocket. It's not hard to find 40+ year old ones (I recently got a 1911 penny). So not only do we get the message out to every last American through their change, it stays in circulation for years as a reminder of DC's lack of democracy.
Would a Democratic Congress block a voting rights design? Maybe. But isn't it at least worth making them do that, to help force the issue and get the press coverage of it?
Alternately, I'm for the slogan attributed to JFK: The District of Columbia--where Southern efficiency meets Northern charm.
I do love Cool "Disco" Dan, but "Surrender Dorothy" would make a terrific slogan for something although perhaps not a quarter...
Blelvis
A generic yuppie standing in front of Starbucks on one side and Rachel Ray standing in front of Dunkin Doughnuts on the other side.
Suggestions: (Taxation without Representation has too many syllables and sounds like we're bi**hing about Taxes...where's the originality in THAT??
How about something shorter and, if not sweeter, at least simpler?
Not Just denizens, CITIZENS!
Where's OUR vote?
Governed Without Consent
(or enter your suggestion here)
the proper motto is "Taxation Without Representation". the word "No" is left out intentionally.
Reid said: But it will still be better than Louisiana's.
Aw, c'mon... It ain't the best, but it's not the worst either. I really like the outline of the entire "Purchase," and I'm not just saying that because I'm a native New Orleanian. Besides, the South Dakota designers have some explaining to do. It looks like a pheasant is about to land on Mount Rushmore.
A giant pheasant, that is.
A giant pheasant, that is.
What is my dad going to do? He is collecting all of the quarters (D and P) in a collector's case and now he will have two extra quarters! Those collector's case makers are going to make a killing!