Proposed versions of Alaska quarter

[akdrv]

A federal advisory committee today will review four proposed versions of a quarter dollar coin honoring Alaska.

 

The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee meets at 10 a.m. at the U.S. Mint Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

 

The Mint staff will present four versions of the Alaska coin, which is scheduled to appear in 2008 along with those for Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii.

 

Last week, another federal panel, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, selected its preferred design from among the four versions created by the Mint’s sculptor-engraver group.

 

The seven-member fine arts commission recommended a coin featuring a polar bear with a sunburst in the background, according to Sue Kohler with the commission’s staff.

 

However, the commission said it preferred the slogan “The Last Frontier” to that design’s original slogan, “Land of the Midnight Sun.”

 

The other three proposed coin faces feature a brown bear with a salmon in its mouth and the slogan “The Great Land,” a sled dog team with Denali in the background and the slogan “North to the Future,” and a goldpanning miner with Denali in the background and the slogan “Denali, the Great One.”

 

After the panels make their recommendations, the secretary of the treasury will send approved designs to the state of Alaska.

 

The state will chose a final preferred design. The treasury secretary will then make a final decision.