I think my personal favorite out of all the released quarters so far is the Nevada quarter. Those horses look like they should have unicorn horns.

I tried collecting those quarters when they first came out, but I needed to do laundry.

the whale is aweseom. you gotta go with that. our florida one is busy busy busy.

Conan O'Brien did a great bit on the state quarters the other night - the Washington one was great.

Me posting this does no good without telling you what the joke was, but part of the its humor was the quarter's saying's length, hence, I can't remember the whole thing.

I like the stylized orca design, partly because it's the most distinctive and historical of the three finalists, but also because it probably would compel Bush to issue a moronic statement about the design looking too gay and illegal immigranty to pass for American money.

whale's fine if you want to celebrate north coast native americans, but this is a washington booster quarter and as such 2 makes the only sense (cents?). 1's too busy.

Here's the Conan O'Brien joke suggesting a slogan for the Washington state quarter:

"Home of the scrawny sweater-vested twenty something faux-intellectual with a loathsome name like 'Trent' or 'Chance' who reviews Thai fusion cafes for a local free weekly and who shops at tiny mom and pop bookstores that sell nothing printed less than five years ago and only discernable talent seems to be sipping caramel mocchaccinos and expounding on how American local color is... (flip coin, big laugh) ...tragically vanishing in the jungle of big business gentrification as though his bank account contains a penny that didn't trickle down from Microsoft or Starucks and oh, how they hung on his every word last Friday night at Rachel's gallery opening when he argued how everyone who pays to see major studio film is culpable in the murder of true culture; thanks for the wake up call, Fauntleroy."

By the way, his wife is from Seattle.

Missouri's quarter is particularly nice-- Lewis and Clark sailing towards the Arch on what appears to be an inflatable raft, between two coastlines of broccoli. Lovely.

I like the stylized whale a lot, but the number 2 option is pretty good too. The salmon looks tasty!

You know why Alabama put Helen Keller on their state quarter?

Because she was the only one who learned how to read.

That whale/orca is a robot monster last boss. Jump on it three times but don't touch it's spout or you'll need to eat some apples from inventory.

So if the orca quarter wins, will the Vancouver Canucks sue for copyright infringement for using their team logo? :P

It is ALL about Robofish. They had that site linked to the Fark website a few weeks ago, and Robofish was ahead by about 13000 votes before they shut it down.

Personally, I think making a double headed quarter is the only logical way to go. Washington on the front, Washington on the back.

CONAN BRIEN ON WASHINGTON:
"...[Home of the] faux-intellectual with a loathsome name like 'Trent' or 'Chance' who reviews Thai fusion cafes for a local free weekly..."

COMMENT:
Stranger than truth.

I'd like to see the Orca win as much as anyone, for the reasons others have alluded to--acknowledging the prior claims of the Northwest Nations to these parts, etc. But I wonder how the people from whose lifeworld this Orca image is derived feel about it. In the first place, a totem representation is not something to be made, viewed or circulated lightly--setting aside the crass commercial symbolism of putting one on the currency, perhaps it's just not respectful. Second, settler society has so consistently expropriated and misappropriated indigenous property--intangible property such as totem representations no less than land, material artifacts and human remains--and has so consistently endeavoured to erase indigenous authorship, that, far from constituting an act of reparation, putting a totem on the currency--especially obverse a portrait of the "father" of Anglo USAmerica--is an additional finger in the eye: "Fuck you, fuck NAGPRA, and to hell with your sacred clan totems, we'll put 'em on the quarter if we goddamned feel like it."

For comparative purposes, consider the Australian $1 and $2 coins. Am I alone finding the generic Aboriginal "elder", obverse Queen Elizabeth, icky? And if Kangaroo were your progenitor and teacher, how would you feel about his being the ticket to a bottle of beer at every pub in the country?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Australian_One_Dollar.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Australian_Two_Dollar.jpg

Josh -

I respect your logic, but the WA state arts commission has a strict policy requiring that native-inspired public art must be approved and preferably designed by certified tribal artists. I doubt very much that the Orca quarter would insult them as crass exploitation of their native heritage.

On the other hand, there is a fair chance that they might feel insulted and dissed by all the local tourist crap that exploits and corrupts the name of a Duwamish leader named Sealth. Should we make amends by replacing the name of Seattle to Allentown?

Wendy, I was very disappointed by the Nevada quarter. I think it should have said, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

I was imediately all about the Tillicum Village whale quarter, but the spout, gawd, it's just too cartoony. Gotta go with Number two, though i wish there was an apple, some wheat, a hydroelectric dam, and a bong.