Nevadans choose wild horse design for state quarter

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 11:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The wild horse is going to be the Nevada theme on a 25-cent piece to be minted in January next year and distributed nationwide.

State Treasurer Brian Krolicki said today that nearly 60,000 people voted in the contest to choose one of five designs for the state's quarter. The wild horses were a clear winner.

Even though the issue of wild horses has been controversial, Krolicki said this was "a beautiful design" with three wild horses, the Sierra Nevada in the background with the sun rising and the sagebrush on both sides. The motto is "Morning in Nevada."

Two state legislators who represent rural Nevada, where many ranchers are at odds with wild horses, said they had no objection to the mustang being on the coin.

Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, said he didn't think putting wild horses on the coin will "enhance the status" of the animal.

Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, said the wild horse is part of Nevada's heritage. "I have nothing against the wild horse as long as they keep them under control," Marvel, a former rancher, said.

Krolicki said the mustang design gathered 18,900 votes or 32 percent of the people who cast ballots either online or by mail.

He said voting by children "made the difference" for the winning wild horse design. He estimated that 25 percent of the vote came from children, including his daughter Kate, favoring the wild horses.

In second place was the bighorn sheep with the snow-capped Sierra Nevada range, at 14,500 votes; then came the miner holding a pickax in front of a mine at 14,200; the "Battle Born" design of two crossed pickaxes with a star in the middle at 9,600 votes; and "Nevada Heritage" with a petroglyph, a tule duck decoy and a Dat-So-La-Lee basket at 2,400.

The latest figures from the Bureau of Land Management show there are an estimated 14,700 wild horses in Nevada, down from the 19,000 from the previous year. And the mustang has been a center of controversy with ranchers complaining the horses trample the range, ruining the feed for cattle. Nevada has the largest population of wild horses in the West.

Wild horses have also been in the news with a controversial law that allowed the BLM to sell them to anyone, and horses were found going to slaughterhouses.

The design on the quarter was limited by the U.S. Mint. There were no finalist designs featuring the gambling industry or the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Krolicki said officials at the U.S. Mint felt "that gaming would not be appropriate for national coinage." He said he asked them to reconsider by they refused.

He also said the coin could not depict private buildings such as the Las Vegas Strip.

Nevada was the 36th state to enter the Union and it will be the 36th state to have its coin minted.

In other states, Krolicki said the governor or a commission selected the motto to be on the coin. But Nevada decided to let the public decide.

More than 15,000 votes were mailed in and the rest came on the Internet. He emphasized that the children, who are not eligible to vote in elections, made the difference in the voting. "They delivered the wild horse," he said.

He said the election process was monitored to make sure there was no fraud.

Cathy Barcomb, administrator of the Nevada Wild Horse Commission, said she was very pleased with the selection of the mustang. "We have a tremendous asset," she said, and it helps promote tourism.

"This goes to show how Nevadans feel about wild horses," she said.

The voting closed at 5 p.m. on May 30.