And now for the rest of the quarter story

I don’t care for Paul Harvey, but I like his signature, “and now for the rest of the story.” In this case it’s a true, amusing, peculiar and, in the end, a slightly troubling story about how the U.S. Mint dictates the design of state quarters.

In Maine’s case the story began last year with a call from the Governor’s Commission on the State Quarter Design for residents to submit concept designs. It ended recently when Gov. Angus King announced that Mainers had voted for the “Pemaquid” lighthouse design.

Initially, the commission selected four designs and then asked some of the designers to make minor changes. The moose on the Katahdin design, for example, turned into a canoe with a Native American paddler. The artist for one of the lighthouse designs described it as “inspired by Pemaquid”; the lighthouse sits on a low rock.

These four designs were sent to the U.S. Mint in June 2001. The principal designers were required to release all rights to their designs.

In May 2002, the Mint artists sent back their interpretations of the Maine designs. The governor’s office was appalled and sent them back. In one case, the U.S. Mint artist had managed to cram five people into one canoe (according to commission chair, Dale McCormack).

This July the Mint sent back their revised efforts. You’ve seen the results. The Bangor Daily News (Aug. 2) described the Mint’s redesign of the Katahdin coin as being suitable for “nowhere but on the refrigerator of especially indulgent parents.” It bore no resemblance to the Mount Katahdin design described in the Portland Press Herald (Aug. 23, 2001), as a “million- dollar masterpiece.”

In the case of the “Pemaquid” quarter, the Mint artist created an inaccurate image of the lighthouse and plopped it onto the rocks at Bass Harbor.

Now, here’s the rub. Why would the Mint artists ignore Maine’s submissions, get the artists to sign away any claim of authorship, and then create their own, Washington, versions of Maine? A call from the designer of the Missouri winning quarter has me wondering. He, Paul Jackson, submitted an elegant and artful design with Lewis and Clark in a canoe, paddling the Missouri. What did the Mint send back? Twelve people in a boat (the Lewis and Clark expedition team) poling through the St. Louis Arch! (see www.state- artistsonstatequarters.com)

So, is that the rest of the story? And, what lighthouse scene did the U.S. Mint create for us? Bassaquid Light?

Brian Kent is an artist from Litchfield who created the original quarter design depicting Mount Katahdin.