The Ohio quarter, the second quarter of 2002 and seventeenth in the series,
honors the state's contribution to the history of aviation, depicting an early
aircraft and an astronaut, superimposed as a group on the outline of the state.
The design also includes the inscription "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers."
The claim to this inscription is well justified -- the history making astronauts
Neil Armstrong and John Glenn were both born in Ohio, as was Orville Wright,
co-inventor of the airplane. Orville and his brother, Wilbur Wright,
also built and tested one of their early aircraft, the 1905 Flyer III, in
Ohio.
On May 1, 2000, Governor Bob Taft requested design concepts from Ohioans for
the state's quarter. The Governor established an 11-member Ohio
Commemorative Quarter Program Committee that requested ideas from all Ohioans
and received 7,289 submissions. The Committee's six favorite candidates
were posted on its website for vote. Some 40,000 votes later, the top four
concepts were submitted to the Mint. These include state symbols, aviation
and aerospace, birthplace of aviation and the spirit of invention.
From the United States Mint's candidate designs, Governor Taft selected the
"Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers."
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