AUGUSTA – When’s the last time you demanded change for a quarter and really meant it?

As of Wednesday, Mainers who want to literally change the appearance of the American quarter will have 13 days to vote for one of four designs approved by the U.S. Mint.

That opportunity is being extended by Gov. Angus S. King who, technically, is charged with making the choice of what scene should be depicted on the “tails” side of the quarter under the U.S. Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program.

King told reporters Wednesday that he opted to let Maine residents select the design by either voting on the state’s Internet site at www.maine.gov/quarter; by clipping the ballot accompanying this article and mailing it to: Office of the Governor, 1 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0001; or by faxing a ballot to the governor’s office at 207-287-1034. All ballots must be received by Aug. 7.

“At this point, according to the law, the final decision is mine,” he said. “I decided to let the people of Maine make the decision. That was a decision I made from the onset of the program.”

The mint’s quarters program made its debut on Jan. 1, 1998, with a new Delaware coin and will continue through 2008 until all 50 states have been represented. Maine’s quarter will be circulated in the spring of 2003. Since Maine was the 23rd state to join the union on March 15, 1820, it will be 23rd in the mint’s series. Mintage numbers for each series are not released by the mint until a year after the coin begins circulating. To date mintage numbers have ranged from 632,000,000 for Ohio’s quarter to a whopping 1,594,616,000 for Virginia’s.

Maine’s entry into the process began a year ago when a special panel appointed by the governor began evaluating numerous designs for the back of the quarter. After receiving a variety of suggestions from within and outside the state, the panel entered into discussions with the state treasurer’s office and the state arts commission.

“We narrowed it down to six designs which we sent to the mint in Washington where they had to make the decision of whether it was mintable as a design that could be turned into a coin,” King said. “They worked on these extensively and in the process have really modified some of them substantially from the original submissions.”

In the end, the four finalist designs agreed upon included three in which light plays a significant role and a fourth which features an American Indian in a canoe crossing a pond with Mount Katahdin in the background.

Two of the coins feature different lighthouses, one of which is clearly the lighthouse at West Quoddy Head displaying a pine tree and the words “Our Nation’s First Light.” The second depicts a lighthouse that King said was suggested by the Pemaquid Point lighthouse at the pinnacle of a rocky promontory with a schooner in the background reminiscent of the Victory Chimes.

The final entry shows the outline of the state with the sun rising on the right and the North Star on the left, also inscribed with the phrase, “Our Nation’s First Light.” King remained tight-lipped about his personal favorite.

“I’ve already voted and no matter how many times you ask I’m not going to tell you what my favorite is,” he said.

According to information on the U.S. Mint’s Web site, the state quarters program has been extremely popular. In 1998 the mint produced about 1.5 billion quarters and in 2000 it minted 6.2 billion quarters.