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 stars and bars of the District’s flag. And replacing the oh-so-controversial “Taxation Without Representation” will be the D.C. motto, “Justitia omnibus,” meaning “justice for all.”

We’re a little disappointed that Mayor Adrian Fenty has chosen not to challenge the U.S. Mint’s decision on the use of the phrase “Taxation Without Representation” on the D.C. quarter. After all, Fenty has made plenty of gestures — even if symbolic — to indicate his displeasure with the lack of action on D.C. voting rights. Heck, in 2007 he even snubbed President Bush and sat instead with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi during the State of the Union address. This time around, the city has a great case to make. After all, the phrase wasn’t coined by the D.C. voting rights movement — it dates back to 1750 and was one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution. In fact, the phrase entered the American lexicon more than 50 years before “Live Free or Die,” the New Hampshire state motto that graces its quarter. And while the U.S. Mint claimed that the proposed phrase is “clearly controversial,” it bears asking whether or not they would ascribe the same controversy to it had it been proposed by another state. We think not.