California - One of my biggest gripes with a quarter's design is when they try to put too much on it. That idea, in itself, isn't bad but what usually ends up happening is pretty ugly. The quarter ends up having about 4 different things/themes that have very little to do with each other, so it looks incoherent (I'm looking at you South Carolina, Louisiana, and Arkansas... and don't think you're off the hook Wisconsin, Florida and Illinois). At least California, like Tennessee and Ohio, tried to make an overall theme about it. Tennessee had the best idea (three instruments for the three sections of the state), but in practice none of them finished the design cleanly. California tried to go the outdoors/nature route including John Muir, a California Condor, and Half Dome (and thus Yosemite Valley). But the quarter looks too cluttered with the condor flying right at Muir's head and Muir looking bigger than everything else just looks wierd (remember aerial perspective doesn't work too well on a coin). But probably the biggest issue I have with the quarter is them feeling the need to explain with text that this is "John Muir" and "Yosemite Valley." In fact, if you take the condor and "John Muir" out, this quarter could EASILY be a B and might even contend for an A. As it is, this is one of those middle grade coins smack dab between a B and a... Grade: C
Minnesota - I don't acutely remember holding a Minnesota quarter. I'm pretty certain I have, I just don't remember it all that well and that's not a good thing... most of the time. It's, in general, an unspectacular coin. The duck and the fisherman don't really have much to do with the state but it does bring together the one thing the state has a lot of.... Lakes. So it makes sense that they went with a lake. However they decided to throw a "top grade killer" wrench in the works by putting the state outline and the words "Land of 10,000 Lakes" on the quarter. Really those two things are the quarters only flaw... the state's outline is not very interesting (the southwest corner, which is a real corner, definitely doesn't help) and the text is off center (too high) and almost unreadable. Sorry, Minnesota, you just missed. Grade: B
Oregon - I like Oregon, as a state. Actually, I like it a lot. And I like it because it's, for lack of a better word, subtle. Oregon is like the forgotten/middle child of the Pacific Northwest (With California, technically Northern California, being the successful older mature brother and Washington and British Columbia being the younger, hipper brothers). But Oregon pulls off the "lesser known", but therefore "cooler", middle child/state role well. And they pulled off their quarter well. A great image of Crater Lake (along with Wizard Island) and the just the words "Crater Lake" added. Perfect really. Grade: A
Kansas - Kansas, like a few other states struggled because it doesn't have a single, well-identified feature to put on it's quarter. So it went fairly generic and simply put a buffalo (or bison if you will) and the Kansas state flower, the sunflower, on the quarter. And thats it. No text (aside from the usual State Name, Year it became a state, Year the quarter was released and "E Pluribus Unum"), no nothing besides a buffalo, 3 flowers and some grass. And I like that. However I just can't get over how unoriginal it is. It helps that the Kansas state song is "Home on the Range" (which has the line "Where the buffalo roam") but even their alternate designs were pretty boring. So, it might be a product of their lack of features, or maybe I'm just being harsh, but they definitely could have tried harder. Grade: C
West Virginia - West Virginia's quarter is almost perfect. If you've read my other review you can probably guess why I say "almost." Yup, it's because of the cut-off bottom. At least in this case it doesn't ruin the quarter, it just makes it slightly "uncomfortable." The other negative mark is that the text ("New River Gorge") is hard to read where it is placed. A shame really, because it could have contended for the best quarter... but do not fret, Mountaineer State. You still get a high mark. Grade:A
1 comment:
Keep up the good work.
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