Back in 2001 when the NY state quarter came out I gave one to my young son. He looked it over and asked, "Where's Grand Island?". For those that don't know, Grand Island is a large island in the middle of the Niagara river at the western end of the state. Its absence is conspicuous to people that live there and in the area (as I do). Recently the coins designer, Daniel Carr, was in the news as part of the World trade center coin thing and he posted his opinions on the matter on another forum. I took the opportunity to PM him on the Grand Island matter, and he responded... Hello, I believe that the reasoning was that the only inland waterway (inside the perimeter of NY state) to be shown on the coin was the Erie Canal route. No other rivers were shown within the state outline. The original design I did included the area of Grand Island, but it was not shown separated from the rest of NY by the rver. http://www.designscomputed.com/coins/ny_draw2_512.jpg Just thought it was interesting.
Having met Mr. Carr and seeing many of his designs first hand, I can tell you that the mint really knows how to mess up a great design.
