It’s a two-bit contest

By David Swann, Star-Bulletin

Help us design a 50th State quarter

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

We all remember the high-school cheer -- "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar. All for Radford, stand up and holler!" (Substitute the name of YOUR high school in the appropriate spot.)

Or the refrain -- "Shave-and-a-haircut, two bits!"

Well, here's the Star-Bulletin Two-Bit Contest. You can contribute your two bits -- OK, it's supposed to be "two cents," but it's OUR contest, after all -- to the nation's pocketbook.

The deal is, Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware has proposed a change to the humble quarter, and last week, the Treasury Department gave the scheme the green light. If everything goes according to plan, beginning in 1999, the reverse side of the quarter will feature a design highlighting a state of the union.

Five states a year will be honored in this way, which will make the program last 10 years, that is, unless we add more states in the next 12 years.

The designs will come from the states themselves, and then will be scrutinized by the Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee and the national Fine Arts Council to make sure that the design is suitably dignified. Other than that, it's open house on the quarter-back.

So -- we're asking folks to submit designs commemorating Hawaii. Draw yours on a sheet of paper no larger than letter size, and submit it with the entry form at right.

We'll choose 25 finalists, each of whom will win a roll of quarters. The deadline, naturally, is Sept. 25. We'll run all the finalists together, and the public can vote for their favorite. The winner of the run-off will get 25 rolls of quarters and their design rendered by one of the Star-Bulletin's ace artists. It will then be submitted to Rep. Castle's office and Gov. Cayetano's office for consideration as the Hawaii design.

"This is exactly how the designs will be chosen," said Kristin Nolt, Castle's press secretary. "We expect that the designs will come from the average citizen."

As for guidelines, keep it simple. No color. No textures. This is stamped nickel-copper alloy over a copper core, after all. This will only be the second change to the Washington "Liberty" quarter since it was designed in 1932, the other being the bicentennial model of 1976.

Only the back will be changed. It's up to you whether to keep the phrases UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, QUARTER DOLLAR and E PLURIBUS UNUM. The latter, you may recall, translates from Latin as "Out of many, one," or into Pig Latin as "Ou-tay o-fay any-may, o-ney."

The quarter is an all-American coin. The coin of the realm, literally, used to be the Spanish silver dollar minted in Mexico. They were called "pieces of eight" because they could be legally cut up like a pie into eight slices. Two bits of eight were a quarter -- which is where the phrase "two bits" comes from.

Why are they doing this to the quarter? Essentially, because it's cool, and because it's a scheme to sell money to taxpayers. Coins aren't collectible unless they're different from each other. It makes these coins a bit more interesting, and it should promote pride in various states.

Also, if you collect a quarter and don't spend it, the Treasury comes out ahead. "A quarter costs only four cents to make, so every quarter not spent means a profit of 21 cents to the Treasury," said Nolt.

Estimates of how much this will bring in range from low billions to high billions. But for the average collector, it's cheap. For $12.50, you can have all 50 states.

The only catch for us in Hawaii is that the coins will be issued in the order the states were admitted to the Union. Naturally, Rep. Castle's state, Delaware, isn't known as "The First State" for nothing. It will be the first state to have a commemorative quarter.

Hawaii is the 50th state, so our coin won't hit your pockets until the year 2009. But the way state planning goes around here, it doesn't hurt to get a head start before the Legislature starts funding some two-bit fact-finding commission.

Two-Bit Contest

Design Hawaii's new quarter and compete for a top prize of 25 rolls of quarters ($250). All finalists will win a roll of quarters, each.

Send your quarter design with Name, Address, Zip Code, Day Phone, Night Phone and your Age to:

P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, HI 96802

Or fax it to (808) 523-8509.

Contest deadline Sept. 25, 1997.