The Nevada State Quarter - Brief History

I found these old renderings on my computer and thought they would be good to put up for people to see. These were the four other designs voted on for the Nevada State Quarter. There were originally more than 15 or so actual renderings that we got back from the US Mint. We had to sort through each concept drawing to come up with the desing we thought best to send to the voters of Nevada.

To get to that point though we sorted through literally hundreds if not thousands of suggestions of what to include. We had everything from the USAF Thunderbirds and Hoover Dam to Lake Tahoe, a pair of dice and a slot machine. What a lot of people didn't realize is that we were under some pretty strict guidelines on what could and could not be considered for the quarter. That's why a lot of the more controversial stuff (like stuff related to gambling) could not be included.

Once we got the suggestions whittled down and into "concepts" we sent them off to the US Mint for their artists to do renderings based on the different symbols of Nevada that we submitted. What we got back were the 15 or so renderings I mentioned previously, which we then had to sort through to pick four or five for people to vote on.

Although it wasn't my favorite at the time, the reason that the winning quarter actually made it to the ballot to be voted on was becasue of my vote. I didn't like the mustangs design and when it was originally considered to be one of the five for final voting, it almost didn't make it through.

You see, the original design sent us from the mint had about seven mustangs in it. I pointed out that while seven horses looked pretty cool on a large artistic rendering, they would be so small on a quarter that no one would see them. Many agreed and the design probably would have been scrapped if I didn't suggest that the rendering be sent back and redone with no more than three horses on it. Once that was agreed to, the vote passed, the rendering was changed, and the rest, as they say, is history. Here are the other four that we eventually selected and were presented to be voted on by the people of Nevada:



This one was "Nevada's Early Heritage" featuring a petroglyph and native artifacts. Funny thing was, the guy who designed this one put on a petroglyph that was from California, not Nevada. It also has the Tule Duck (Nevada's state artifact...yes, we have a state artifact. Its an ancient duck decoy made out of reeds) and a basket from a famous Native American basket maker. This was my least favorite of all the designs. This one was the "Silver Miner," with a miner holding a pick axe in front of a Comstock mine. I liked this one, and I think it was Tanner's favorite.

This was"Nevada Wilderness," featuring an image of a Big Horn Sheep above snow-capped mountains. I loved this design and would have loved to see this become our state quarter. Our ulitmate choice was great too, as Nevada is really the last place in America to find wild mustangs, which really do symbolize the old west. The bighorn sheep is our state animal though, so I thought it was probably a better choice.

This design was called "Battle Born Nevada," featuring a pair of crossed pick axes fronted by a star, representing Nevada's entry into the Union. It also has two sagebrush leaves (Nevada's state flower) and the rising sun over the state motto (well, one of them...the other is "Battle Born")