News Releases for August 2006
August 18, 2006
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Hoeven Announces North Dakota Quarter Launch Ceremony
BISMARCK, N.D. - Gov. John Hoeven today announced that the official launch ceremony for the North Dakota Statehood Quarter will be held on Wednesday, August 30, 2006, on the State Capitol Mall in Bismarck. The event will start at 10:45 a.m. with music from the cast members of the Medora Musical. The event will also include Clay Jenkinson performing as Teddy Roosevelt, the Cannon Ball Drum group and soldiers and laundresses of the United States 17th Infantry Regiment, Company H re-enactors.
"Mikey and I would like to invite all North Dakotans to attend the official launch ceremony for the North Dakota statehood quarter," said Hoeven. "Our statehood quarter will showcase North Dakota's legendary past to people across the country and around the world."
Immediately following the event, one free North Dakota quarter will be handed out to each child 18 and under present. The Bank of North Dakota will be selling rolls of never-circulated North Dakota quarters for ten dollars. There is a limit of five rolls per person.
The North Dakota Council on the Arts in conjunction with First Lady Mikey Hoeven's office will be selling a limited edition commemorative coin set for five dollars. Each set will include one quarter from the United States Mint at Denver and one quarter from the United States Mint at Philadelphia. All sales at the event will be cash-only.
Seating for the event will be on the grass in front of the Capitol steps. Individuals attending the event are encouraged to bring a blanket to sit on. Lawn chairs are prohibited on the Capitol Mall.
The 50 State Quarter Program Act, passed by Congress in 1997, provides for the redesign of the reverse side of the quarter dollar with images emblematic of each of the 50 states. Under the Act, a series of five quarter dollars with the new reverse will be issued each year through 2008 celebrating each of the 50 states of the Union. The coins will be issued in the sequence that they became part of the United States of America. North Dakota joined the Union in 1889 as the 39th state.
Hoeven established the North Dakota Quarter Design Selection Commission, chaired by Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple, to guide the selection process and develop the narrative design concepts to be presented to the United States Mint. Members included:
- Jack Dalrymple, Lt. Governor
- Jan Webb, North Dakota Council on the Arts
- Dina Butcher, former Exec. Director of the N.D. Agriculture Coalition, public member at large
- Karen Krebsbach, North Dakota Senate
- Nancy Johnson, North Dakota House of Representatives
- Al Jaeger, Secretary of State
- Merl Paaverud, Director, North Dakota Historical Society
- David M. Gipp, President of the United Tribes Technical College
- Sara Otte Coleman, Director, Tourism Division, Department of Commerce
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