CHEYENNE — It will take the super-fast presses at the U.S. Mint just 10 weeks to produce all of the roughly 500 million Wyoming quarters that will ever be produced.But it took more than two years and hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes work to get the quarter ready for the minting process.

Roughly 3,200 Wyoming residents contributed by submitting design ideas. A committee appointed by Gov. Dave Freudenthal honed the concept, while the governor made the final choice.

The process yielded a design that has been described as “clean,” “simple” and “elegant”by some and unfortunate by those who think the bucking horse and rider image does not accurately represent the state.