October 17, 2003
Oregon To Be Drawn And Quartered
One story I never got around to is the design selection for Oregon's turn at getting a commemorative quarter. I'll just do a quick roundup of what the local papers have had to say about it.
Back in August the Portland Tribune covered it, provided a FAQ, and held a contest for strange designs.
Then this month, The Oregonian reported the Governor's call for suggestions, and published the designs of local cartoonists, which of course you can't see on OregonLive because Advance Internet's newspaper websites are next-to-useless.
Of course, you should also read Worldwide Pablo's remarks on The Oregonian essentially stealing ideas from the Tribune, except of course that they simply let local cartoonists in on the act, as compared to the Tribune putting out an open call for designs.
Public submissions are due by November 1, and while the "United States Mint requires the initial design concepts from the states to be in narrative form" (according to the Governor's call for designs), Oregon's commission "will accept both narrative and graphic design concepts form the public to aid the commission in its development of three to five narrative design concepts."
Also note that the public meetings of the Oregon Commemorative Coin Commission limit themselves to occuring in Salem and nowhere else.