Business in brief: Online retailers see hot holiday start

American consumers jammed online shopping sites on Monday, the official start of the holiday season for e-tailers, resulting in robust sales, according to an Internet research company.

ComScore Inc. reported on Tuesday that consumers spent $733 million online on Monday, a 21 percent gain from the same day a year ago.

While the first Monday after Thanksgiving kicks off the online holiday shopping season, it’s not the busiest day for retailers, according to comScore. Last year, the busiest online shopping day was Wednesday, Dec. 13, generating $667 million in sales.

Nevertheless, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, labeled Cyber Monday, represents the first big sales surge, as consumers return to their office and click on their computers to shop. ComScore said that Monday’s sales results represented an 84 percent jump from the average daily online spending totals during the preceding four weeks.

Washington

U.S. Mint unveils last state quarters

A grizzly bear clutching a salmon, the Grand Canyon at sunrise and a scissortail flycatcher in flight. Those striking images will be on the final batch of state quarters as the most successful coin program in history draws to a close.

The U.S. Mint on Tuesday unveiled the final five designs for the state quarters with the first one, honoring Oklahoma, to be put into circulation in late January with the other four following at 10-week intervals after that.

The states have been honored in the order they were admitted to the union, starting with Delaware. It was honored with a quarter in 1999. The effort kicked off a collecting craze unlike anything ever seen before in the coin world.

Based on a 2005 survey, Mint officials estimate 147 million people have gotten involved in collecting the quarters with their constantly changing designs.

The final five coins will start with Oklahoma, which entered the union in 1907. It will feature the state bird, the scissortail flycatcher, and the state wildflower, the Indian blanket.

That will be followed by a Zia sun symbol for New Mexico, which entered the union on Jan. 6, 1912. Arizona, admitted on Feb. 14, 1912, will be represented by the Grand Canyon and a saguaro cactus.

Alaska’s coin will feature a grizzly bear wading in a stream with a salmon in its mouth while the Hawaii coin depicts King Kamehameha. Alaska and Hawaii were the last states to join the union in 1959.

New York

Daly’s ‘Last Call’ to defy strike

NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly” is about to become the first late-night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production.

Daly, who is not a member of the Writers Guild, will begin taping new episodes of his Burbank-based show this week for airing next week, an NBC spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

The half-hour “Last Call” airs at 1:35 a.m. PST weeknights, but whether Daly’s first new episode would air next Monday or Tuesday was initially unclear. No guests were disclosed.

Writers Guild spokesman Gregg Mitchell declined to comment.