JULY 1, 2005
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Hew Gxegom OarteE1 BeEmtfs
State passes up opportunity to recognize Indians on state coin.
By Ron Karten
The new Oregon quarter ar
rived on Wednesday, June
15, a beautiful, sunny day
on the park block in front of the
Oregon Historical Society in Port
land. The winner was Crater Lake.
Thousands of folks enjoyed the
spectacle as they spilled
over from the nearby
farmers' market,
stood in the little
maze set up for
those wishing to
purchase some
of the new
quarters, and
just milled
around munch
ing on the choco
lates, the jerkys
and other goodies pro
vided by sponsors who were
also thinking about the event's eco
nomic development opportunities.
Grand Ronde .Tribal Elder
Kathryn Harrison, the Tribe's
former Chairwoman, provided the
invocation for this ceremony held
within Grand Ronde's ceded lands.
Sue Shaffer, Chairwoman of the
Cow Creek Band joined Klamath
leaders in welcoming the new quar-
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and the Columbia River as well as
teepees that recognized the part
that Indians played in the state's
history.
The final design honored rural
Oregonians without a mention of
Oregon's Indian history.
A Grand Ronde booth
gave out more than
200 Spirit Mountain
Casino tote bags,
along with
countless promo
tional pieces
about the Tribe
and its history,
according to
Tribal member
and Management
Mentee Jocelyn
Kirk, now working in
the Tribal Tourism office.
Oregon's quarter is the 33rd to be
issued in the U.S. Mint's 50 State
Quarters program. The Mint has
been releasing the new quarters
since 1999 at the rate of five a year,
and will continue to roll out new
state designs through 2008.
The quarters are being minted
and released in the order the states
were admitted to the Union. Or-
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Vision Klamath Tribal member and Queen of the Klamath Restoration Pow
wow Katerra Hicks listens to the speech given by Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski.
ter. Klamath Elder and Tribal
Council member Bobby David,
Tribal member Billy David, and
Tribal member and Public Infor
mation Specialist Taylor R. David
presented, with Taylor retelling
some of the oral history about how
the star of the show, Crater Lake,
came to be.
Crater Lake will forever grace
hundreds of millions of Oregon
quarters - to be minted and distrib
uted in the ten weeks following
June 15 for time immemorial for
ward, as the Klamath, Modoc and
Cow Creeks have lived on the lands
of Crater Lake for time immemorial
backward.
The quarters, costing the Mint a
nickel each to make, are produced
according to demand, said U.S.
Mint Spokesperson Jana Prewitt.
Early designs of the Oregon
quarter included pictures of salmon
egon follows California and Minne
sota among this year's releases.
Kansas and West Virginia quarters
will follow later in 2005.
Errors in some releases of some of
the quarters make them potentially
valuable additions to the rest of our
pocket change. Some Wisconsin
quarters, for example, have an ex
tra leaf coming out of the corn stalk,
according to Clint Humbert, owner
of Alpine Coin Company in Port
land, making these potentially
worth hundreds of dollars each. In
fact, he said, the Wisconsin quarter
has two mistakes with those leaves,
one with the second leaf below the
original leaf, and another with the
second leaf even lower, into the
cheese part of the coin.
"I don't know what they're worth,"
said Humbert, "but I know what
they're selling for. A guy in Arizona
paid $1,000 for a set of three (one nor-
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Respected Elder Thousands of people attended the unveiling of the new
Oregon quarter held outside the Oregon Historical Society building in Portland on
Wednesdayjune 15. Members of Klamath, Cow Creek and Grand Ronde Tribes
welcomed the crowd and shared cultural perspectives of Crater Lake. Tribal
Elder and former Tribal Chairwoman Kathryn Harrison posed for a photo with
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski shortly after she provided the invocation.
mal, one with the miscast first leaf,
one with the miscast second leaf).
Pennsylvania, Connecticut and
Delaware quarters all have coins
with one side reversed, upsidedown
you might say. (A normally minted
quarter will have both heads and
tails facing straight up when re
versed vertically.)
The www.statequarters.com
website, recommended by Prewitt,
who would only describe errors as
"very rare," cautions against pay
ing too much for coins with minting
errors. "In reality the price for a
180 degree rotated state quarter in
mint state (uncirculated) condition
is in the $50 range," reports the
website.
Soren McAlister and Wayne
Chulik represented the Grand
Rondes as Honor Guard posting the
colors, accompanied by the Eagle
Beak Drum Group featuring Tribal
members Bobby Mercier, Travis
Mercier and Quinelle, along with
Yakama Tribal member Richard
Sohappy, Siletz Tribal member
Lonnie Havernak and Nez Perce
Tribal member Rich Harris. Grand
Ronde Veterans Royalty members
Halona Butler, Junior Queen and
Leland (Brother) Butler, Young
Warrior, also were in attendance, as
was Tribal member Elaine LaBonte,
once a Mentee in the Tribal
Mentorship program, and now a
Mentor in the program.
The Oregon Historical Society nor
mally has a $10 entrance fee. For the
day, the state's historians lowered
the entrance fee to a quarter.
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Band Hillsboro's Liberty High School Marching Band strutted their stuff
along the park blocks after the Governor addressed the crowd in Portland.
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