Arizona State Quarter

Arizonans should be accustomed to waiting. We had to wait years for such things as professional sports teams, Ikea and light rail.

On Friday, the 48th state's design became the 48th state quarter as the Grand Canyon and saguaro began their minting run in Denver.

But we're going to have to wait a little bit longer because the coins aren't likely to show up in tills around the Valley for another two weeks or so, according to Michael White, a U.S. Mint spokesman.

...

Arizona's coin, featuring the Grand Canyon and a saguaro, is among the most beautiful of the quarter designs, said Richard Snow, who has written three coin-collecting books and operates Eagle Eye Rare Coins in Tucson.

"Artistically, for the Mint to put the Grand Canyon on a small coin is really a challenge," he said.

Arizona Republic article:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/200...uarter0517.html

He lives in Arizon and thinks the Arizona quarter is "among the most beautiful". What a shock. I think the N.C. quarter was the penicle of designs and they should have stopped there.

Fatcat

I will have to say that the AZ qtr. is not among the worst - but it is a far cry from being "among the most beautiful"! (Though it is better than my state of South Carolina where we are extremely proud of our state outline. Two things bug me about it: 1. I don't think I would have recognized the Grand Canyon if the "Grand Canyon State" banner had not been tipping me off. 2. The saguaro used as a border between the two vignettes really bothers me. It's like the Grand Canyon ran into a cactus and then the earth shifted down a few hundred feet to a very very small desert. I like the sun (even though borrowed from 2006 quarters - "the year of the sun" - the sun hadn't been used at all until 2006 and then, boom!, NV NE & ND all of a sudden all use it). I also like the foreground stuff - though I'm not sure what it is - the state flower and other stuff, I presume.

Of all the state quarters using geology as the primary device, I would rank them like this:

1. West Virginia-New River Gorge
2. Oregon-Crater Lake
3. Colorado-the Rockies
4. Nebraska-Chimney Rock
5. Arizona-Grand Canyon
6. California-Yosemite
7. South Dakota-Mt. Rushmore
8. New Hampshire-Old Man of the Mountain

Just my opinion......