Mississippi’s state quarter is an interesting failure. It does something right that most quarters don’t: it chooses one image and displays it boldly. Mississippi is the Magnolia State, so their quarter presents the caption “The Magnolia State” along with two beautifully composed Magnolia blossoms. It is truly some of the best artwork on any of the quarters: the veins in the leaves and the texture of the petals are deliciously rendered.
The problem is this: flowers are colorful and quarters are not. If there had been some plan to paint all the quarters with a couple spot colors, this would have been one of the most glorious ones. But there never was any plan for that. Quarters are a silvery color. Depicting flowers on a quarter is not effective. The flowers come out looking eerily still and lifeless, like Han Solo in Return of the Jedi when he gets frozen in carbonite: not dead, but certainly not able to respond to our affections.
(And, by the way, what a waste of one of the greatest characters of all time, to have Han Solo frozen for most of that movie. I remember being disappointed in that development when I was watching in the theater, and I was only six years old. Even at that age, I knew I was getting screwed. It was the first intimation that George Lucas did not have our best interests in mind. Likewise, Mississippi’s quarter designers like to show us something lively and invigorating, and then delight in taking away its essence, leaving only the frozen shell.)
Just to spend a minute thinking of alternate quarter designs, what about an image of Nina Simone singing in concert, with a few musical notes over her head and the words “Alabama’s got me so upset, Tennessee’s made me lose my rest, and everybody knows about Mississippi GODDAM.” Can a state quarter reference other states? Can a state quarter have a swear word on it? It doesn’t matter. You’re Mississippi. You’ve been pushed around enough. Just send it to the Mint.
Nick, baby, first of all – LOVE the blog. I mean, this written word thing is really workin’ for ya. Let’s set up a lunch with my agent at Mr. Chow, next, hmm… Tuesday? Will that work for you?
ANYWHO, I think your memory is a bit fuzzy re: “Return of the Jedi,” as the opening action set piece is centered around the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba’s fortress, as indicated by the opening title crawl:
“Episode VI:
RETURN OF THE JEDI…
Luke Skywalker has returned to his home
planet of Tatooine in an attempt to rescue
his friend Han Solo from the clutches of the
vile gangster Jabba the Hutt.”
So, Han hardly stays frozen “for most of that movie.” Just sayin’.