In 2000, the US Mint issued the New Hampshire quarter. The
image on the back shows the Old Man of the Mountain: a cliff hanging off Cannon
Mountain that looked like a bearded man’s profile:
What now? Naturally a state committee was formed to decide.
Did they decide to reassemble it? No. (Wise decision.)
Did they decide to commemorate it? Yes, of course. They’ve
put up viewscopes that show what it looks like now (not much), and what it used
to look like. (Excellent decision.)
But the stupid thing persists. New Hampshire uses it on its
highway signs; if you’re on a state road, you see something like this:
And it’s still on all those quarters, which will be in
circulation until Doomsday.
There’s a lesson here somewhere.
Washington is “the evergreen state.” Probably there will be
evergreens growing there – some of them, somewhere – even if there’s a
catastrophic event. Rhode Island is “the ocean state,” and the ocean ain’t
going anywhere.
Here’s an old song (sung by Frank Sinatra) which should have
been heeded by the state leaders of New Hampshire:
In time the Rockies may crumble,
Gibraltar may tumble,
They’re only made of clay . . . .
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