Owner Comments:
The fourth commemorative quarter-dollar coin released in 2006 honors North Dakota, and is the 39th coin in the United States Mint's 50 State Quarters® Program. On November 2, 1889, North Dakota was admitted into the Union, becoming our Nation's 39th state. The North Dakota quarter depicts a pair of grazing American bison in the foreground with a sunset view of the rugged buttes and canyons that help define the State's Badlands region in the background. The coin's design also bears the inscriptions "North Dakota" and "1889."
President Theodore Roosevelt founded the United States Forest Service and signed the Antiquities Act in 1906, which was designed to preserve and protect unspoiled places such as his beloved North Dakota Badlands, now known as Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Herds of American Bison thundered across the Badlands through the 1860s. The park is now home to more than 400 wild buffalo, an animal once on the brink of extinction.
The North Dakota Quarter Design Selection Process was launched by Governor John Hoeven on April 14, 2004, when the State's nine-member commission was announced. Chaired by Lieutenant Governor Jack Dalrymple, the commission invited North Dakotans of all ages to submit narratives of 50 words or less. After reviewing thousands of suggestions, the commission recommended three narratives for design development: Agriculture, Landscape and Badlands. Candidate designs were developed by the sculptor-engravers of the United States Mint and artists in the United States Mint's Artistic Infusion Program and returned to North Dakota. On June 3, 2005, Governor Hoeven recommended the "Badlands with Bison" design for the North Dakota commemorative quarter-dollar.
The Department of the Treasury approved the design on July 20, 2005. One of the two other design concepts considered during the final selection process was "Agriculture," the predominant industry in the State. This design included an aerial view of a modern farm with bountiful fields under an open sky. The other finalist, "Landscape," featured migrating waterfowl and the sun breaking through clouds over a vast, sweeping landscape scene.