When an advisory committee to the U.S. Mint proposed that Benjamin Banneker grace the District's commemorative quarter set to be released next year, not many D.C. residents were too happy with the decision. But thanks to a timely intervention by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, voting was opened to residents, leaving them with the choice of Banneker, Duke Ellington, or Frederick Douglass. The city announced today that Ellington squeaked out a narrow victory in the......

The city opened up online voting for residents to choose their preferred design for the official District of Columbia quarter at the end of last week. You can vote for your preference between the three proposed designs, which depict Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington and Benjamin Banneker, at this web site, with voting open between now and June 18. The U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee recommended earlier this month to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that......

When we reported two days ago that an advisory committee to the U.S. Mint had recommended that Benjamin Banneker grace the District commemorative quarter, there was a predicted and understandable groan from many residents. But for D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the decision isn't final until District residents say it is. In a release posted on her website yesterday, Norton explained that the committee's proposal to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was just that -- a......

Still wondering what's up with the D.C. quarter that's supposed to hit the streets in 2009? Wonder no more -- we may have a winner. Today the U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee met to review three proposed designs for the D.C. quarter -- Duke Ellington, Benjamin Banneker, and Frederick Douglass -- and propose their choice to the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson. And who did they choose? Benjamin Banneker. Short of Paulson overruling......

A few months after a controversy erupted over the design of the District's state quarter, the Post managed to get images of three new possible designs on Friday. According to Post reporter David Nakamura, the three designs -- Benjamin Banneker appears on one, Duke Ellington on another, and Frederick Douglass on the third -- will be officially released soon and subjected to public comment before a winner is chosen in time for a 2009 rollout.......

Talk about speed. It was Monday that the District proposed three designs for their personalized quarter, all bearing the slogan "Taxation Without Representation"; Wednesday that the U.S. Mint curtly rejected the designs; and late yesterday that city officials submitted three new design proposals sans the offending voting rights slogan. (Oddly, they remained quiet about the new proposals until late this afternoon, when the announcement was buried in a monthly newsletter sent out by the mayor's......

Reacting just as quickly as the U.S. Mint did in shooting down the District's proposed designs for its own commemorative quarter, city officials are already floating new ideas for what will eventually grace the coin when it is minted in 2009. According to an article in the Post today, city officials will likely keep two of the proposed designs -- abolitionist Benjamin Banneker and jazz legend Duke Ellington -- while retiring the proposal for the......

Update III: Mayor Adrian Fenty has released a statement responding to the U.S. Mint: “We were asked to submit ideas that were ‘emblematic of the District of Columbia.’ I can think of nothing more unique and characteristic than our status as the only American citizens without full voting rights in Congress. Even after we are successful in changing that status, it will still be an important part of our history. We respectfully disagree with the......

Proposing that the words "Taxation Without Representation" appear on a D.C. quarter slated to appear in 2009 was either a strong-willed statement of defiance or a worthless waste of an opportunity. It just depends who you ask. Since Mayor Adrian Fenty announced three proposed designs for the D.C. quarter on Monday -- one would feature the stars and bars of the city flag, another Benjamin Banneker, a third Duke Ellington; all would include the District's......

Barring any unwelcome intrusions, sometime in 2009 the U.S. Mint could roll out an official D.C. quarter bearing the city's slogan, "Taxation Without Representation," to great fanfare. But considering that unwelcome intrusions are part and parcel of living in the District, we're not yet holding our breath. Yesterday Mayor Adrian Fenty formally submitted the District's three proposals for its own quarter to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, arguing in a memo that the voting......