From many designs, one will be Arizona's quarter

Out of many suggestions offered by July 15 will come one design, which makes it doubly appropriate that the quarter will, by fiat and tradition, carry the Latin slogan "e pluribus unum" when it is issued in 2008.

Tucsonans can have their say, and their chance to see the commission at work, on Wednesday when the Arizona Quarter Commission created by Gov. Janet Napolitano holds a meeting in Tucson.

The Grand Canyon and the many-armed saguaro, often in tandem, are the runaway favorites so far, said commission member James Bowie, a senior research specialist at the Social Research Laboratory at Northern Arizona University.

Bowie is devising a computer program to sort the suggestions made by the Arizona public.

So far about 1,200 designs have been championed, said Melodee Jackson, an aide to Napolitano and chairwoman of the commission.

A tally of favorites will be made, but this is not a popularity contest, said Anne Woosley, commission member and executive director of the Arizona Historical Society.

The Historical Society will host Wednesday's meeting and is offering free admission to the museum, where costumed guides will escort visitors on a tour of pertinent Arizona history, perhaps inspiring some new and novel submissions for the quarter design.

The public will be able to comment at the end of the meeting, which usually lasts about 90 minutes, said Woosley.

While the Grand Canyon is the runaway favorite among natural features, many others have been proposed, Woosley said. Among them, Rainbow Bridge, Sedona's Red Rocks, Monument Valley, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest and two Southern Arizona favorites: the Chiricahua and Organ Pipe national monuments.

The saguaro leads in the flora and fauna category, but the palo verde, the Gila monster, scorpions, snakes, the cactus wren, the roadrunner and the coyote also are represented.

People seem to have an affinity for dressing their saguaros in hats and bandannas, Woosley said.

People, who must be deceased to appear on coinage, range from Pat Tillman and Lori Piestewa, killed recently in Afghanistan and Iraq, to Apache leaders Geronimo and Cochise and political figures such as Sen. Barry Goldwater and Rep. Morris K. Udall.

Woosley thinks it more funny than embarrassing that the commission, an assemblage of bright people from across the state, had some trouble identifying Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, and jazz great Charles Mingus, who was born in Nogales.

San Xavier Mission, Route 66, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West and Hoover Dam are among the man-built icons. No votes yet for Biosphere 2.

Indian icons include Casa Grande ruins, Navajo rugs and jewelry, kachinas and Kokopelli.

If the recently trendy figure of Kokopelli is chosen, said Woosley, then New Mexico has to take the howling coyote for its quarter.

A variety of groups have been nominated, but Woosley said it's her hope that if people are picked they don't have a "strongly associated ethnic identity. There are too many groups and cultures that have had a strong influence in making Arizona what it is today."

Nominations for depictions of Arizona's economic resources include the five C's of copper, cotton, cattle, citrus and climate, but also golf courses, resorts and astronomical observatories.

Arizona, which became the 48th state in 1912, has had to wait its turn for a commemorative quarter.

The commission must send three to five recommendations, in writing only, to the U.S. Mint by Sept. 1.

The mint will forward three designs to the governor early next year. The governor will choose one, and the quarter will go into circulation in May 2008.

On StarNet: Take a look at what Star readers think should be on the Arizona state quarter at go.azstarnet.com/quarter

● The saguaro is a prominent element in all of these designs; Tucsonans' input will be sought at a Wednesday meeting.

Marlene J. Reynolds, Glendale

Joe D. Krugel, Chandler

Richard Johnsen, Sahuarita