Bighorn leading possible Nevadaquarters

Eric Leake

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.

A picture of a bighorn sheep is now the front-runner to fill the back of the Nevada state quarter.

Coin World, a publication for coin collectors, reported that two federal committees picked the bighorn sheep design over four others last month as their favorite for the Nevada quarter.

The design depicts the head of a bighorn sheep ram, the state animal, over a stretch of the Sierra Nevada. Next to the ram is the state motto, "All for our country."

Coin World senior staff reporter Paul Gilkes said the Nevada bighorn design was the only one both the Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee picked as a favorite while also reviewing quarter designs for Nebraska and North Dakota.

"The design that was recommended, that's probably the best looking one of them," Gilkes said. "The rendering was just done well. The proportions and everything looked good."

One commission did recommend some changes to the design -- reducing the size of the ram and enlarging the mountains, Gilkes said. The commission also suggested removing the state motto because it looked as if it were the ram's speech.

Runner-up to the bighorn design was one of a miner with a pickaxe and shovel standing in front of a mine.

Gilkes said the design was good but thought the shovel was too much. "Replace it with a pitchfork and it looks like Grant Wood's 'American Gothic.' A miner wouldn't stand that way," he said.

Additional designs were of two pickaxes behind a star and a banner reading "The Silver State," three wild horses running in front of mountains with sagebrush branches on either side, and one representing the state's American Indian heritage through artifacts.

Gilkes said simple designs are generally best because there is not much room on the back of a quarter. He said the favorite of many collectors is the 1999 Connecticut quarter that features a historic and solitary oak tree.

"It's only got one motif on there, but you remember it," he said.

State quarter designs are created by artists working for the U.S. Mint and based on concepts submitted by each state. The designs and recommendations will now return to the mint for revision.

The final Nevada state quarter design must be selected by state officials and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury. The Nevada quarter will debut in 2006.

The 50 State Quarters Program is the most popular coin program in U.S. history, according to the U.S. Mint, with more than 130 million Americans collecting the coins.