The District’s commemorative quarter is set to hit the streets on January 26, and will bear the image of Duke Ellington, DCist has learned.

Though Greg Hernandez, spokesperson for the U.S. Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program, was tight-lipped about the final design of the quarter (the official release date for the design of the D.C. quarter is Monday, December 15), three different people who answered the phone at the Mint’s main press office today confirmed that the jazz legend would grace the District’s commemorative quarter-dollar. (The image pictured here was the proposed design, not the final. We’ll see that on Monday.)

Since the story of the quarter is more exciting than the quarter itself, allow us a quick recap. It was around this time last year that the District was finally granted a commemorative quarter, following in the footsteps of the 50 states in a program launched by the U.S. Mint in 1999 and set to end this year. Looking to make a point about the city’s lack of voting representation, District officials submitted three designs bearing the message “Taxation without Representation,” all of which were promptly rejected by the Mint.

The District then submitted three new designs, one with the image of jazz legend Duke Ellington, one with astronomer and inventor Benjamin Banneker, and a third with abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Intent on picking a design most likely to provoke a collective “Who’s that?” from America, an advisory committee at the Mint proposed that the Banneker design be the one to represent the District. Thankfully, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton stepped in and demanded that District residents be given a choice, which they were — and they narrowly chose Ellington. (I personally wanted Douglass. Ellington is great and all, but it still feels like a consolation prize after having our initial designs so curtly dismissed.) Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has apparently since given the design the go-ahead.

So come January 26, make sure to keep your eyes open for the D.C. Duke Ellington quarter. It has been a long time coming, so savor your hometown quarter-dollar.