50 State Quarters: Coloring Pages Featuring Ohuhu Markers

In 1999, the US government launched the 50 State Quarters Program. For the next ten years, the US Mint issued five new quarters each year (one every ten weeks) representing each of the 50 states, in the order that the states entered the Union. The front of each quarter had the same portrait of George Washington that's been used on the quarter since 1932. The back of the quarters featured designs unique to each state. The program was enormously popular; in fact, roughly half of the US population collected the coins. Approximately $3 billion worth of quarters remain out of circulation and in the hands of collectors. 

I was among the 50 state coin collectors. When the program began, I was teaching 5th grade. This meant handling a surprising amount of loose change - daily lunch money, Scholastic book orders paid for entirely with coins, fundraiser payments, etc. - which gave me access to more circulating quarters than the average person. When I found a new-to-me one, I swapped it out for one of my own quarters and made a point of showing the students who were interested what the new design looked like. It was great fun seeing what each state chose to represent itself. 

Indeed, the design was up to the individual states... with some limitations. They could not feature living people or state flags. Any deceased people had to pictured doing something - not just as a head-and-shoulders portrait. Obviously, any artwork needed to work as an engraved design on a metal surface less than 1" in diameter. Most states asked its citizens to submit designs, then sent a handful of those to the Treasury Department for approval. Approved images went back to the state. From those, either the governor (33 states) or the citizens (17 states) selected the winning design. The designs are quite varied. 

There are several fun "firsts" among the 50 state quarters. Alabama's is the first to feature braille on a coin. Hawaii's is the first to show royalty (King Kamehameha I). New Jersey's is the first to feature George Washington on both sides. 

The Mint has coloring pages of each of the 50 state quarter designs available for downloading. I chose four, which I colored with my Ohuhu Kaalas. The fine tip was perfect for getting into the small spaces. Relatively speaking, that is. The "small" spaces on my coloring pages are enormous compared to the engraved designs onto the surfaces of the quarters. 

Here is my interpretation of Nevada's state quarter. Because quarters aren't in color, I had some freedom in deciding how to color the design. It would be interesting to learn what the original artist envisioned. 

In the case of the New Jersey state quarter, I know exactly what the intended colors are. It was hard to reproduce Leutze's oil painting with markers, but I did what I could and took a bit of artistic license. 

The Oregon state quarter features a real place, the beautiful Crater Lake. 

I like how different Wisconsin's state quarter is from the others (which are, in turn, completely different from each other).  

I've printed out another set of state quarter coloring pages. I reluctantly put away my Ohuhus and will be using something else to color these. At least, that's the plan. I may end up back with the Ohuhus after all.