The more I look at these, the more I think the states did a pretty good job with them, overall.
The ones I like the most are the ones that capture the natural beauty, significance, culture, or history of the state in some way. Like the musical heritage acknowledged on Tennessee’s quarter, the buffalos grazing on the badlands in Nebraska, the ships and Jamestown inscription on the Virginia quarter, and the biplane on the North Carolina quarter. These designs build on strong associations I have with those states, so in a sense, they say a lot simply by evoking those associations with simple imagery.
Some designs work by mere virtue of being badass, like the Montana bison skull with “Big Sky Country,” the rodeo guy on Wyoming’s (talk about some restraint on that design), the statue of King Kamehameha I on Hawaii’s, or the fucking bear on Alaska’s.
The weaker designs are the ones that mash up too much stuff together in an incohesive way, like the inorganic mess of transportation on Ohio and Florida’s designs or the extremely half-assed cut-and-paste job on Idaho’s quarter. Some of the cluttered designs work, though, like Arizona with the Grand Canyon, the saguaro cactus, and the burst of sun rays reminiscent of the state flag. Wisconsin has a cow, a block of cheese, a husk of corn, and the state’s simple and direct motto; they’re arranged nicely and, shit, what else do you need to know about Wisconsin? Nevada’s totally doesn’t click with any associations anyone has with Nevada, but it’s pretty enough to be convincing (and the “Silver State” nickname is well known, if often forgotten).
A lot of missed opportunities, though. The Texas design is good, but I think a simple design with the Alamo (maybe with a Lone Star above it) would’ve been more memorable. The proposed design for Idaho with the Sawtooth Range and a river with an Idaho-shaped delta was much better than what they ended up with. As cool as Duke Ellington is on the D.C. quarter, I think Frederick Douglass would’ve been better. New Hampshire probably would’ve been cooler if they just put “LIVE FREE OR DIE” in the middle of the design and left the Old Man out. California missed their opportunity to have a fucking bear on their quarter.
The worst one, though, is Michigan. Are you guys shitting me? Even Indiana put a car on their quarter. Michigan should’ve put a Model T on there and nothing else. When you make that big of an impact on the country and the world, you ought to fucking acknowledge it.
