Rubin Approves 5 States’ Designs for the Back of 1999 Quarters

Georgia peaches and a celebrated Connecticut oak are among designs that will replace the American eagle on the back of new quarters minted in 1999.

Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin gave his final approval to five new images Thursday. They were submitted by the first five states to ratify the U.S. Constitution: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut.

Over the next 10 years, all 50 states will get a chance to redesign the tails side of the quarter under a program approved by Congress earlier this year. A profile of George Washington will remain on the heads side.

“This program will encourage all of us to discover more about our own state and the history of all 50 states,” said Rubin.

Delaware chose to honor Revolutionary War figure Caesar Rodney, mounted on a galloping horse. In a ride nearly as famous in its day as Paul Revere’s, he raced 80 miles from Dover, the state capital, to Philadelphia in 1776, to cast his vote approving the Declaration of Independence.

The quarter commemorating Pennsylvania shows the allegorical figure Commonwealth, whose statue sits atop the state’s Capitol dome. On the coin, she will be surrounded by an outline of the state’s borders, her right hand resting on a keystone, the state symbol. Pennsylvania’s motto, “Liberty, Independence, Virtue,” also appears.

New Jersey’s coin has the words “Crossroads of the Revolution” and shows the scene from the 1851 Emmanuel Leutze painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware.”

The Connecticut quarter shows Eastern Connecticut State University art teacher Andy Jones’ depiction of the Charter Oak, its branches bare in winter. The white oak, famous for hiding the state’s Charter from the English monarchy in 1687, stood in Hartford until 1856.