04/01/03

WASHINGTON Alabama's new state quarter depicts the state heroine and the state tree, but somebody else's state flower.

Or does it?

U.S. Mint officials say the Alabama state flower, the camellia, was never even considered for the Alabama coin. Instead, the special state quarter shows Helen Keller bordered on the right by a garland of magnolias.

To prove it, Mint officials on Monday unearthed an April 27, 2001, letter from former Gov. Don Siegelman announcing the state's quarter would honor Keller and include decorative wreaths of magnolia, wisteria or Southern longleaf pine.

"It mentions everything but camellia," said U.S. Mint spokesman Michael White.

The flora border to the right of Keller is leafy and flowered, but it's so tiny and undefined that an eye untrained in horticulture could go either way.

On Monday, six trained eyes agreed the coin's border looked more like a camellia.

"The way the leaves come out from under the flower that definitely is what a camellia does," said Amy Wright, a professor of horticulture at Auburn University. "Magnolia leaves are much bigger and rounded. To me, the structure looks like a camellia."

She corralled two colleagues from the horticulture department in the College of Agriculture to examine a picture of the coin, larger than actual size, from the U.S. Mint's Web site. There was a consensus.

To boot, the U.S. Mint Web site advertising the Alabama quarter includes a decorative picture of what is assuredly a bright red camellia.

"That pointed leaf? That's definitely not a magnolia," Wright said of the Web site photo. Mississippi and Louisiana list the magnolia as their state flower.

Despite the horticulturists' opinion, the U.S. Mint is sticking by its press release.

"We say it's a magnolia," White said.

Nobody's arguing about the branch on the left edge of the coin. It's Alabama's state tree, the longleaf pine. Undisputed. Cones included.

U.S. Mint planning to release coin next March

10/07/02

Helen Keller's image will be the centerpiece of Alabama's new state quarter, set for release by the U.S. Mint in March.

The Tuscumbia native, who overcame deafness and blindness to become an internationally known educator and writer, best represents Alabama's struggles and triumphs, Gov. Don Siegelman said.

"Helen Keller symbolizes the courage of a people who've been through civil war and civil rights," he said. "She is a visible reminder of the importance of education and determination, and the importance of having a good teacher."

Minting will begin in December. Alabama's quarter will go into circulation in mid-March, U.S. Mint spokesman Mike White said. More than 600 million Alabama coins will be minted, he said.

The Keller quarter will be the 22nd issued in the U.S. Mint's special state quarters program, a 10-year initiative (1999-2008) commemorating each of the 50 states. The quarters are released according to when a state entered the union. Alabama became the 22nd state in December 1819.

Governors select the featured images, and only deceased state heroes or heroines are considered. Siegelman chose Keller from more than 450 drawings and suggestions by Alabama schoolchildren. The governor had solicited the students' ideas and asked only that they follow a theme: "Education: Link to the Past, Gateway to the Future."

The governor's staff pared them down to a handful that included Keller; the state Capitol; Cherokee Indian Chief Sequoyah; the yellowhammer, Alabama's state bird; and a design by Birmingham's Amy Peterson showing various symbols of Alabama's history.

"Amy's quarter was spectacular," Mike Kanarick, the governor's press secretary, said. "But it was too detailed to duplicate on the face of a quarter."

Keller soon emerged as the perfect heroine. Born in Tuscumbia in 1880, she lost her sight and hearing to meningitis when she was 18 months old. Aided by her teacher and companion Anne Sullivan, she learned to talk with her fingers and eventually graduated from Radcliffe College.

A human-rights activist, she traveled, lectured and wrote books before her death in 1968. Keller lived long enough to witness actresses Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft win Oscars for portraying Keller and Sullivan in the 1962 film "The Miracle Worker."

The governor's office invited Keller's great-great-niece, Keller Johnson-Thompson, and other family members to provide a favorite photograph for consideration. The Keller family will learn today that their picture of Keller, shown seated and regal, will appear on the back of the quarter, above the slogan "Spirit of Courage." The front will feature George Washington's customary image.

Siegelman will unveil the design, which he says features a surprise element, this morning at Birmingham's Epic School. He'll travel this evening to Ivy Green, Keller's Tuscumbia homestead, to present a framed print of the quarter to her family, Siegelman said.

U.S. Mint engravers designed the quarter. Two Alabama emblems the state flower, the camellia, and cones from the state tree, the Southern longleaf pine frame Keller's image.