The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 52, December 23, 2007, Article 18

WASHINGTON D.C. AND TERRITORIES GET THEIR "STATE" QUARTERS

[Assuming the President signs the massive spending bill 
into law, the "%0 States" Quarter program will be extended 
after all. The following excerpts are from a Washington 
Post article published this week. -Editor]

The District has no vote in Congress, its laws can be trampled 
by federal legislators and even its streets can be closed by 
the feds on a moment's notice.

But after nearly 10 years of fighting, the city finally won 
a new mark of respect this week.

It will have its very own quarter.

The measure, tucked into a giant federal spending bill, puts 
the District on the same level as the 50 states, at least 
when it comes to the popular coins showcasing home-state 
icons such as mountains, birds, race cars and fiddles. The 
D.C. quarter is due in 2009, with a design yet to be determined.

'Can you believe it? How many years have I tried to get that?' 
exulted the city's congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes 
Norton (D), who has repeatedly introduced bills to get the 
District a place on the quarter's flip side.

Despite Norton's vigorous lobbying and arm-twisting, it 
was not the District's quest for equality that ultimately 
carried the day.

It was Puerto Rico's.

Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) inserted language into the 
spending bill to provide quarters for his native Puerto Rico, 
as well as the District, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, 
American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Serrano became chairman this year of the House Appropriations 
subcommittee on financial services, which oversees important 
agencies such as the U.S. Treasury. That gave him the power 
of the purse, or at least the quarter.

'I said 'Ah-ha!' ' Serrano recalled. 'So I said, 'Puerto 
Rico will get a quarter. But it shouldn't be just Puerto 
Rico; it should be all the territories.' '

Not that the District is a territory, he quickly pointed 
out. 'But it's certainly treated that way.'

The city has already used its license plates, stamped 
'Taxation Without Representation,' to trumpet its lack 
of voting rights. Some have speculated the city might try 
to put that motto on its quarters.

To read the complete article, see: 
Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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