The South Dakota State Quarter

The South Dakota State Quarter is the 40th Quarter in the U.S. Mint's Statehood Quarters Program. It was the fifth State Quarter issued for the year 2006, and its offical State Quarter Day was November 13, 2006. The South Dakota State Quarter was officially unveiled by Governor Mike Rounds and U.S. Mint Director Edmund Moy in a release day ceremony at the Mount Rushmore Amphitheater.

To choose the design, the South Dakota Quarter Advsory Committee narrowed more than 100 submissions down to 5 final design candidates. Residents of South Dakota voted on the five proposed coin designs, which had been prepared by U.S. Mint engravers and participants in the U.S. Mint's Artistic Infusion Program. The final design, created by U.S. Mint artist John Mercanti, includes three symbols important to South Dakotans: Mount Rushmore, the State Bird, and a pair of Wheat Heads. Inscriptions read "South Dakota 1889," commemorating South Dakota's admission to the Union on Nov. 2, 1889, the motto E Pluribus Unum, and the year of issue, 2006.

The South Dakota State Quarter Features Mount Rushmore

The South Dakota State Quarter features Mount Rushmore, the awe-inspiring sculpture of four U.S. Presidents which was carved into a mountainside by a team of 400 artisans under the direction of sculptor Gutzon Borglum. The sculpture, which was never actually completed due to the death of Borglum in 1941, took 14 years to create and cost nearly $1 million, an astronomical sum in the Depression-era 1930's. It features the heads of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, in sixty-foot high mountainside sculptures. The name of Mount Rushmore predates the sculpture itself, and honors a prominent New York attorney by the name of Charles E. Rushmore.

The Bird and Buds on the South Dakota Quarter

The Quarter depicts the South Dakota State Bird, a Chinese Ring-Necked Pheasant, flying above the Mount Rushmore scultpure. This particular species of pheasant was believed to have been brought to South Dakota sometime around 1898. Pheasants are frequently seen in the U.S. Midwest, and are enjoyed as a hunting target and for their delicious meat, which is considered a delicacy.

The final important device on the South Dakota State Quarter is the pair of wheat heads that encircle the reverse design. They look just like the wheat heads on the back of the Wheat Ears Penny, and represent the fact that wheat has long been an important crop for South Dakota.

What is Missing From the South Dakota Quarter?

Many people feel that the South Dakota State Quarter should have had some reference to that state's well-known Native American heritage. They feel that rather than including a Chinese Pheasant, which isn't even indigenous to North America, the Quarter's planners should have included a design element that referenced their state's important Native American traditions and history.