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.