D.C. Deserves a Flip Side

Bill Krawczewicz, who designed the Maryland quarter, says you don't have a lot of space, so you need something iconic.

Hmmm.

Despite bison, horses and cows on other coins, the panda misses the mark. They're native to China, not Woodley Park. The Beltway? Forget it. Same for the Metro. Too much angst. The Capitol, the White House and the Washington Monument are iconic, but they're federal properties.

WTOP's political commentator Mark Plotkin, long an advocate of District rights, wants a person on the quarter. "Because we are invisible in the American political landscape, and people think that we are a collection of buildings and monuments and memorials," he says. Someone like abolitionist Frederick Douglass, whose historic homestead is in Washington, would be perfect.

Lionell Thomas, of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, suggests District native Duke Ellington, "for his world renown and the acclaim he's brought to the city."

Plotkin's fine with Ellington, who'd be "fabulous."

Just no trees, no flowers, he says. "And no cherry blossoms, please."

And for a motto, how about: Potius sero quam numquam (Better late then never)?

-- Michael E. Ruane, staff writer