Lansing - Excited youthful designers and coin enthusiasts joined the governor at the Library of Michigan Historical Center Wednesday for the unveiling of the five possible larger-than-life images of Michigan’s state quarter.
Members of the Michigan Quarter Commission, appointed by Gov. John Engler last fall, evaluated more than 4,300 quarter designs submitted by students and citizens across the state.
“More than a third of those will be recognized,” said Maureen McNulty Saxton, spokeswoman for the Department of History, Arts and Libraries. “They all had the mitten and the Great Lakes.”
The designs, recreated by an artist for the presentation, all feature a raised outline of the state and the slogan “Great Lakes State.”
“That’s what you can see from 1,000 miles out in space,” Engler said, referring to the Great Lakes. “We had a terrific response from our citizens when we asked them to submit designs.”
But the five potential quarters had their differences.
Each quarter had a different combination of smaller symbols including an early automobile, the Mackinac Bridge, a canoe to symbolize Native American populations, the North Star to signify Michigan’s many stops as part of the Underground Railroad, a lighthouse because Michigan has more than any other state, and a tree to symbolize the lumber industry.
“No state (quarter) has more than four elements,” Saxton said, referring to one design that featured six small designs around the border.
Michigan’s quarter will be released in 2004 - the 26th state quarter to be minted. The quarters have been released in the order each state entered the union. Seventeen state quarters have been minted.
The state quarter program, sponsored by the U.S. Mint, was launched in 1997 after Congress passed legislation. The final quarters are expected to be released in 2008.
The five designs unveiled Wednesday will be sent to the U.S. Mint for a final decision.
At the first meeting of the Michigan Quarter Commission, Patrick Heller gave a presentation on the history of making coins and the minting process.
“We tried to distill the best ideas from all the ones we received,” Heller said.
Heller is a member of the commission and the owner of Liberty Coin Service, 300 Frandor Ave. in Lansing, as well as chairman of the Michigan State Numismatic Society, a club for those interested in coins and currency.
Small designs are difficult to recreate on a quarter, Heller explained, so some designs are less likely to be minted than others.
“The border space is 1/2 by 3/4 inch,” he said. “Things on the border will be harder to strike.”
