Initially I liked the idea of placing different images for each state on the tail side of quarters. It was a means of giving variety to American currency, something interesting to look forward to and a way of learning a little something about each state. But I think the results suck.
Few of the state quarters are visually compelling (I reserve praise for Connecticut, Virginia, Vermont, and Iowa). Most offerings could be logos for banks (like Massachusetts and New York), sports teams (like Texas), or vacation bureaus (like Rhode Island, Ohio and South Carolina). Certainly the designers can do more than create a constellation of symbols with the form of the state in the background. By far the worst offender is Wisconson. Is it a dairy ad? Got milk?
Europe Endless 
November 29, 2004 at 11:49 am
Don’t even get me started about that Wisconsin quarter. I don’t know what’s more frightening, that they put the motto on the quarter or that the motto really is “forward.”
I think there was some excitement about these quarters in the beginning, but now there is just some bored clerk at the state house that takes an office poll to decide what it should be.
-brdgt
November 29, 2004 at 4:28 pm
I enjoyed the quarter program more when we lived on the mainland: I haven’t seen a new quarter in two years. I think the results have been mixed from an aesthetic standpoint, but not from the standpoint of citizen engagement.