Photo courtesy National Park Service Some D.C. residents may have been disappointed to see Duke Ellington end up on the D.C. state quarter instead of Frederick Douglass, but they’ll soon be put at ease. The United States Mint has announced that the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site will be featured on a special quarter of its own, the Examiner reports. Douglass’s Cedar Hill estate, located at 1411 W St. SE in Anacostia, will represent…
We may not yet be a state, but we’ve finally got our own commemorative quarter. The U.S. Mint today rolled out the District’s own 25-cent piece as part of the popular 50 State Quarters Program. Bearing the image of jazz legend Duke Ellington, the quarter was years in the making, requiring an act of Congress and a pitched battle between city officials and the Mint over whether “Taxation without Representation” would appear on the…
We had the scoop last week, but today the U.S. Mint confirmed that Duke Ellington will indeed grace the District’s commemorative quarter set to hit the streets on January 26, 2009. The announcement also included the designs for the five U.S. territories that also received their own 25-cent pieces as part of the popular 50 State Quarters Program — Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern…
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…
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…
