The U.S. Mint wasted no time in rejecting the District’s idea for a commemorative quarter yesterday, saying a proposed inscription protesting the city’s limited representation in Congress would be unsuitable “as an element of design for United States coinage.”

The Mint, which has nearly finished producing quarters with designs for each of the 50 states, received the District’s proposals for its coin Monday — and within 48 hours, it told the city to come up with something else.

“Never have I seen the government move so fast on anything,” said Paul Strauss (D), the city’s nonvoting shadow senator. “You get the sense that no one over there even looked at this in context.”

The problem was not the proposed images for the quarter. The city offered various suggestions, including the three stars and two bars of the District flag and portraits of either jazz legend Duke Ellington or Colonial-era abolitionist Benjamin Banneker. Read Full Story