Good Lord, Illinois, what is going on here? When you had your quarter design contest, did you whittle it down to the top ten ideas and then just paste all those together into one design?
Let’s review what we have here. Abraham Lincoln, apparently from his school days, is about to step through an outline of the state of Illinois. To the left of him there is a farm and the inscription “Land of Lincoln.” To the right of him is the modern Chicago skyline featuring the John Hancock tower and a sailboat on Lake Michigan, and then another inscription– this one reading, “21st State Century.” And then on the outside ring of the quarter there are twenty-one stars. Whoa whoa whoa, Illinois! Slow down!
First of all, state outlines– except for the state of Texas– are never a good idea. It’s a too-literal interpretation of what a state is. Is a state best summed up by an outline of its border as seen from space? Only Texas has a totally awesome and iconic state-shape, one worthy of being put on belt buckles and fashioned into door mats. Do you think there are any belt buckles in the shape of Illinois?
Next there’s Lincoln. Now, Lincoln is totally rad. He totally healed the nation and pretended to free the slaves and then got shot in a dramatic way. But he’s also on every five dollar bill AND every penny. Every single one. Have we not gotten our point across with Lincoln? He’s totally rad. We get it. We don’t need any more Lincoln on our currency. Granted, depicting a younger Lincoln is an interesting idea. Showing him with a book reminds us that he was a real person who had to study to get where he was. And showing his full body, with his fancy 19th Century clothes and an exposed hefty forearm shows us that he could wrassle with the best of the presidents. But we’ve seen enough of him. Aren’t there some other people from Illinois that could have been featured on this quarter?
Luckily, this is one of only two state quarters that overlaps with a corresponding Sufjan Stevens album. Stevens’ 2005 album “Illinois” mentions many great figures who lived in this state, and some of them might have made for a great quarter design.
Frank Lloyd Wright could have been an inspiration. He designed some pretty neat buildings and houses. Particularly Fallingwater, his multi-tiered house that incorporated a waterfall, would have come across really well (although that particular house was built in Pennsylvania, which might have been confusing to see on an Illinois quarter.)
Sufjan Stevens also reminds us that the tallest man who ever lived was from Illinois. His name was Robert Wadlow, and he had a horrible disfunction in his pituitary gland that made him grow and grow until it killed him. He stood eight feet eleven inches when he died. The Illinois quarter could have been a drawing of him standing next to a normal-sized man, perhaps Frank Lloyd Wright. Or, there could have been a drawing of just the lower part of Wadlow’s body, with his head cut off by the top of the quarter, like he was too tall to fit in the frame. That could have been the funniest quarter in this whole series. I understand that you don’t want to turn these quarters into Ripley’s Believe It Or Not?, but… actually, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to do that. That could’ve been a really interesting creative tack for some of these states… odd and unusual people, record-holders and strange occurances.
Speaking of which, John Wayne Gacy was from Illinois. It would be difficult to imagine him depicted on currency, but this could have certainly shaken things up in the quarter series. Like, what if the Illinois governor pulled the purple velvet sheet off their new design and everyone in the audience gasped when they realized that John Wayne Gacy was on the quarter? And the Illinois representatives just stood there and said, “Yup. That’s our quarter.”
Another famous Illinois native: Ronald Reagan. Yes we are tired of presidents on our money, but he is a recent president, and it would be pretty exciting for people to see someone who was alive in their lifetime on a quarter. It would instill in young people the idea that they can become currency too.
Illinois is one of many states who took the easy way out when coming up with a quarter design. There is no edge to this quarter, no risk-taking. It’s all just safe. And then there’s the inscription “21st State Century.” What is that supposed to mean? I suppose we are supposed to draw a connection between the fact that Illinois is the 21st state and that they are somehow primed to be an important player in the 21st century, but it just doesn’t come across well. Plus, there is already another motto on this quarter, so two just starts to feel like cluttered billboards on the highway. Just have your slogan be your slogan and don’t try to have it both ways. (Wait, isn’t that someone’s slogan? Burger King. No, that’s “Have it your way.” Right?)
In conclusion… two mottoes and three seperate tableaus plus a state outline: Illinois, you’ve gone too far.
