State Quarters Design Review: 1999 (Delaware to Connecticut)

As the great design connoisseur that I am, I have been following the U.S. state quarters program ever since the first quarter (Delaware) came out back in 1999. The last state quarter (Hawaii) will be released toward the end of 2008.

So since 5 quarters are released each year and two quarters have been released so far this year, there are 37 state quarters out there. The designs for the remaining 3 quarters in this year have been released so there are 40 designs so far.

What does that mean to you and me? Well, I’m going to review them and I’ll grade them like I were a high school teacher. We’ll go by year and we’ll start with 1999:

Delaware – A tough place to design for because, well, frankly Delaware isn’t all that scenic or “monumental.” Oh sure, they have nice beaches but otherwise it’s pretty flat and forgettable. So they decided to go with some dude, named Caesar Rodney, on a horse and two sets of text: Caesar’s name and “The First State.” I don’t have a problem with the “The First State” (especially since it fills up some white space) but putting the guy's name on the coin is… well stupid. Oh, and Caesar not being recognizable isn’t a good excuse because Franklin Roosevelt isn’t either and his name isn’t on the dime. Aside from that the design is carried out pretty well. Plus, it was definitely better than the other designs (“quill pen and parchment and the allegorical 'Lady Liberty'”). All in all, not a bad start. Grade: B


Pennsylvania - A bad, bland design that spawned a trend I don’t like: putting the outline of the state on the quarter. (I especially don’t like it considering how “boxy” Pennsylvania is.) State outlines are boring and on this quarter it messes with the text. But the outline here seems to be a necessity, from a design sense, as the statue (which is the statue on top of their state capitol) alone leaves too much white space. The keystone logo is pretty boring as well and just doesn’t help the aesthetics. However, the statue wasn’t entirely a bad choice since PA’s more recognizable features (Liberty Bell, Independence Hall) have already appeared on coins. And since it’s not good politics to concentrate on one of the two major cities (Pittsburgh or Philly), they had to go with a “not very good for a coin” statue. Grade: F (Although I might consider uping the grade to a D if the student came and explained to me the merits of the statue and the difficulty in finding a good symbol not from Philly or the ‘Burgh.)

New Jersey - Another tough place to design for because of the same reasons as Delaware. New Jersey might be a much more varied place than Delaware, but it also doesn’t have a unique memorable object. In fact, the memorable “object” they ended up using wasn’t even entirely in New Jersey, since George Washington crossed from Pennsylvania into New Jersey. Regardless, the design is simple and interesting. My only gripe being that the boat is overloaded and it’s hard to make out the details (but you have to expect that since it’s a copy of the famous painting.) Grade: B-

Georgia - The dull state outline makes an appearance on an otherwise good design. Georgia does a good job in going with the very recognizable peach (which they also use on license plates). I also like how they made the text interesting by putting it on a banner. They also do a good job of using plants along the edge (like the old wheat pennies). The only change I would make, would be to get rid of the outline, make the oak sprigs smaller and the peach bigger (almost “sitting” on top of the sprigs). Grade: B

Connecticut - The first quarter that made me think, “Now that’s a good design.” Connecticut was another “featureless state” (I’ll start calling states like Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey this to make it easier) but they could have gone with sailing (which Rhode Island did a good job with, but that’s for another day). But they came out of nowhere and hit a home run, with the Charter Oak. The design is simple and interesting with the stone wall on the right counterbalancing the text on the left. So we’ll just have to forgive them for feeling the need to explain the tree with the text (although I do like the font) and the fact that the tree no longer exists. Grade: A

Tomorrow: Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Virginia.