Idaho’s governor seeks ideas for coin

BOISE – Gov. Dirk Kempthorne called Wednesday for suggested designs for Idaho’s state quarter but wouldn’t say whether silver, songbirds or even spuds might be favored.

Simplicity, however, is a sure lock.

“Some states, it looks like a committee did it,” Kempthorne told a news conference in his Capitol office. “Simplicity is going to carry the day.”

Idaho’s commemorative quarter will be released in 2007 as part of the U.S. Mint 50 State Quarter Program that releases coins with state-specific images on the tail in the order states came into the Union. Idaho is the 43rd state and its quarter will be released just after Washington and Montana and just before Wyoming and Utah.

Kempthorne is inviting all Idaho residents to submit written suggestions of no more than 150 words for an image that best depicts the Gem State to the Idaho Commission on the Arts by Sept. 9.

Drawings or artwork are no longer considered by the U.S. Mint in the selection process, and head-and-shoulder portraits of any person, or any living individual, are off-limits.

The governor initially said that commodities were also off limits but backtracked after realizing that might take the state’s famous potatoes out of the running. He noted that Wisconsin’s quarter includes cheese and Georgia’s quarter depicts a peach.

“I don’t want to put up any parameters,” he said. “Be creative.”

Dan Harpole, executive director of the Idaho Commission on the Arts, said the panel hopes to receive several thousand suggested designs and will then whittle the submissions down to 100 by Sept. 15.

Those 100 semifinalists will be turned over to a select group of community leaders, artists and historians.

That group will choose 10 finalists to be sent to Kempthorne, who will then select “three to five” for preliminary review by the Mint by Oct. 1. Ultimately, final approval of the design rests with the Mint.