Agreement on three out of five possible design choices for 2008 state quarters resulted from meetings of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coin Advisory Committee.
The Fine Arts Commission met Jan. 18. The CCAC met Jan. 23.
Both bodies chose the same designs for the Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii quarters, though Fine Arts requested modifications to Alaska and Hawaii.
For Alaska, which depicts a polar bear, shown to the left below, the Fine Arts group asked that the phrase ?Land of the Midnight Sun? be replaced with ?The Last Frontier,? which it believes is more traditionally associated with Alaska.
The Hawaiian design, which features King Kamehameha with arm outstretched and a beach scene with Diamond Head in the background, shown at left below, prompted the Fine Arts body to ask for removal of the king and use only of the image of Diamond Head.
The Arizona design that both bodies endorsed shows the Grand Canyon, pictured below left.
For the Oklahoma designs, the Commission of Fine Arts preferred the one showing the state bird,, the scissor-tailed flycatcher, while the CCAC liked the pioneer woman with her child and an outline map and peace pipe.
The New Mexico choices, though different, were similar. The Commission likes the large Native American sun symbol over an outline map of the state, while the CCAC chose the smaller version that had ?Land of Enchantment? added.
The decisions of the Fine Arts Commission and the Citizens Coin Advisory Committee are not binding. They are solely advisory in nature to the U.S. Treasury secretary.
