Officials strike new state quarters

DENVER – Mike Gregoire, husband of Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, led a ceremonial strike of the state’s commemorative quarter at the U.S. Mint on Monday.

Gregoire hit a green button on the coin press twice, making one Washington state quarter for himself and one for his wife. But they won’t be able to use them until the new quarter goes into circulation next Monday.

The reverse side of the Evergreen State quarter bears an image of a king salmon leaping out of the water with Mount Rainier in the background. Gregoire said it represents the whole state.

“Mount Rainier can be seen from both Western and Eastern Washington and salmon spawn throughout the Columbia River system,” he said before Monday’s ceremony.

Eight more coins were struck by Washington state officials and former residents who work at the Denver Mint. After the ceremonial strike, the coin press resumed spitting out quarters at a rate of 750 a minute.

Between 500 million and 600 million Washington state quarters could be produced, depending on demand, said Barbara Hurtgam, acting deputy plant manager.

The winning design beat out two proposals in an online opinion poll and was selected by Gov. Gregoire in May. An advisory commission had sorted through 1,500 suggestions ranging from Bigfoot hanging from Seattle’s Space Needle to the rain forest’s banana slugs, said Mark Gerth, spokesman for the Washington State Arts Commission.

The state’s apple growers had pushed for a quarter featuring apples, Mount Rainier and a salmon within an outline of the state, but that was rejected by the governor as too “busy.”

Washington is the 42nd state to have a quarter made by the Mint as part of the 50 State Quarters program since 1999. The next one will be Idaho.

The quarters are issued in the order that the states entered the Union.