31 March 04

California Quarter Redux

I wrote an article for Faultline last year on the design and choosing of the new California quarter dollar, featuring a gold miner, the sierra, a poppy, a bear, and the words “a golden moment,” the apparent choice of the voting California public. It seemed like a done deal, mishmash that it was.

But we had a different governor then. Schwarzenegger has decided that a better choice for the California quarter is Garret Burke’s design featuring naturalist John Muir and the Yosemite Half Dome, along with a California condor (apparently at the Governor’s last-minute request).

You know what? Despite the fact I’ve been proved a liar, and despite the fact that the wishes of those Californians who chose to spend their time on internet votes for designs such as these have been blatantly disregarded, John Muir is an excellent figurehead to have on a coin for this state. I’m also thrilled the condor is there (though it hasn’t yet staged an “amazing comeback” as Schwarzenegger says; it will be many more years and millions more dollars before such a statement can be made, if ever). I gleefully sense rumblings of pissed-offness among California republicans. They voted for him to represent THEM, not the environment or (heaven forbid!) gay marriage. May he continue to confound their senses, and, I might add, mine.

Posted by at 06:45 PM in Nature and Place | Link |
  1. California is not an easy thing to represent, is it? And on a quarter?! I have to say I like the Governator’s selection better than the previous choice, mostly on aesthetic grounds, I think. The way the miner was looking down just didn’t look right to me. California is so much about hopes and dreams…And yes, it is pleasing to have hopes and dreams about the condor and Yosemite and people like John Muir engraved in the currency of the realm.

    — susan    31. March 2004, 19:14    Link
  2. As much as they may differ in politics, both Muir & Schwarzenegger are American success stories: immigrants who came to the States, worked hard to pursue their dreams, etc. John Muir was a physical & mental “rock” of a man. I can understand why Schwarzenegger would be impressed by him.

    — Lorianne    31. March 2004, 23:15    Link
  3. Yeah, wow, whaddaya know-user-friendly “Republicans”! Who’da thunk it? They do seem to be cropping upJohn McCain, etc.-but I also think Ahnold will do/say/be anything, make friends with anybody he thinks he has to, to be Prez.

    — Doc Rock    1. April 2004, 05:50    Link
  4. As an outsider I think this coin looks good. So Schwarzenegger
    has some surprises up his sleeve – maybe he’s not the “yes” man everyone thought he was.

    — Jenny    1. April 2004, 19:41    Link

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