The Colorado that Americans might see when they buy a soda or flip a coin is an imagined mountain scene with the words “Colorful Colorado” engraved under it.
That was the design Gov. Bill Owens chose Tuesday for the state’s new quarter.
“In the end, I wanted a design that spoke to a statewide vision,” said Owens, noting that the five finalist designs were all worthy of minting.
Jeremy Haynes was on a tour of the Capitol with his classmates from Meridian Elementary School when they stopped to watch the governor’s announcement.
“I like the quarter because I do think Colorado is beautiful,” the 11-year-old said.
Owens chose the “Colorful Colorado” design from the finalists that had been whittled down from 1,500. The new coin will enter circulation in the middle of next year.
One design looked like the Maroon Bells near Aspen, and another had Mesa Verde’s cliff dwellings near the Four Corners. Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs found its way onto another design.
Stacy Haynes, Jeremy’s mom, said she had hoped Owens wouldn’t pick a design that represented only one part of the state.
“I was very, very pleased that he picked what Colorado really is – the mountains. It’s more than just Pikes Peak or Mesa Verde,” she said.
But that hasn’t stopped some from claiming to know what mountains the artists from the U.S. Mint based the design on.
“It is obvious that the mountain on the ‘Colorful Colorado’ quarter is Longs Peak viewed from Bear Lake (in Rocky Mountain National Park),” Lela Criswell of Fort Collins wrote in an e-mail.
Criswell even included a picture that is strikingly similar to the design.
The governor’s spokesman, Dan Hopkins, said his office was contacted by someone who thought the design looked like Crestone Peak in southern Colorado.
But first lady Frances Owens, chairwoman of the committee that narrowed the design choices, said the designs were drawn by artists at the Mint and were based on written descriptions.
“Three-fourths of the scene is peaked majestic Rocky Mountains in 3-D relief, seen from the vantage point of the Front Range. The text ‘Colorful Colorado’ reminds people of the meaning of our state’s name,” the description reads.
Frances Owens said it took several drafts before the drawings approached anything near “majestic.”
“We could not get majestic from the U.S. Mint. It was frustrating,” she said. “We see anthills.”
For his part, Owens said he finally decided on the design an hour before the morning announcement without the aid of “karma” or “yoga.” His staffers had printed two posters late last week because Owens couldn’t decide.
When out-of-staters look at the quarter, Owens said, he hopes they think of “mountains. I want them to think trees, wide- open spaces. … I want them to think of the colors that make Colorado so special.”
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
