Have you started using your free Washington “leaping salmon!” quarters as laundry money yet? To mark the handout / public sale of the coins earlier this week, Regina Hackett put her art criticism skills to the test by taking a hard look at all forty-two of the currently minted [#] state pride-inspiring coins. About ours, she writes:

Go, us. A king salmon leaping out of the water on the left with Mount Rainier on the right. The salmon is bigger than the mountain, which makes its fishy presence pop. The mountain in the rear hunkers down into a grizzled, geological hump. Just as the salmon explodes, the mountain appears to implode, a nice contrast. [p-i]

I’m pretty sure that much of the piece is tongue in cheek. While the placement of Connecticut in the top 10 gives some confidence, how else to explain ranking Washington’s entry (not to mention the garish floating bison skull meant to represent Montana) at the top of the list and exiling the lovely Rhode Island coin [usm] to the dustbin of also rans?

For another look at why the state quarters are so ugly, turn to Carol Vinzant 2002 appraisal of the timid blandness that results when art is created by committees.[slate]

Related posts:

1. that excitement you’re feeling in the air? it’s the state quarter.
2. the price of offending no one : the washington state quarters
3. Say hello to the new quarter
4. Looking at the World from Washington State
5. Washington: the frog & onion state