Kathleen Lavey

Lansing State Journal

Which scene from Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore should be depicted on a quarter coming in 2018?

If more than 2,000 Lansing-area schoolkids and adults who participated in a recent survey get their way, it will be Design No. 10, a white-tailed buck with a fantastic rack of antlers standing in front of the rocky Lake Superior cliffs that give the lakeshore between Munising and Grand Marais its name.

"I really was surprised that every one of the 16 schools had the same most-popular choice," said Patrick Heller, former owner and still communication officer for Liberty Coin Service. The store sponsored the unofficial, non-scientific survey, conducted over the past few months in area schools and at coin-related events in Grand Rapids and Warren.

Nearly a third of those surveyed picked the deer design as their favorite, and more than half picked it as a first, second or third choice, Heller said.

Design No. 6, which features a tree-covered rock formation but no humans, birds, animals or individual trees, was the least-favorite. Only 1.4 percent of those surveyed picked it as their favorite design.

The second-most popular design was No. 2, which includes a man in a kayak paddling past flowing water with cliffs in the background.

Heller says he'll pass the information from the survey on to Gov. Rick Snyder's office as well as to the staff at the U.S. Mint. The design the Mint chooses, probably early in 2017, will depend on several factors, Heller said.

"They'll look at how well it represents Michigan as well as coinability," which is how the design looks when it's struck into the metal.

For decades, American quarters all were the same: George Washington on the front, an eagle on the back. A 10-year series of State Quarters began in 1999, with quarters issued in the order states joined the Union. The series started with Delaware and ended with Hawaii in 2008, then was extended into 2009 to include the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. Michigan's quarter was minted in 2004, featuring the outline of the two peninsulas and the Great Lakes.

The 12-year America the Beautiful series began in 2010 featuring national parks, lakeshores, forests and other sites around the country. First up was Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.

The Pictured Rocks quarter will be the first of five 2018 quarters in the series. It will be followed by another Lake Superior site, Wisconsin's Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, then Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia, and Rhode Island's Block Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Contact Kathleen Lavey at (517) 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @kathleenlavey.