A quarrel over quarters: How should Ozarks riverways be depicted on new coin?

Two bits for your thoughts: A softshell turtle eyeballing a kayaker or a view of a historic local mill?

One of those images will likely land on the tales-side of a new quarter. Each has been recommended as the best to represent Missouri's Ozark National Scenic Riverways park when the coin debuts in 2017.

Some say the turtle image captures the spirit of the Current and Jacks Fork rivers.Others say it's a no-brainer: Only historic Alley Mill can be the iconic representation of the national park.

Pacific resident Jo Schaper said she felt the turtle design "has absolutely nothing to do with the reason Ozark Riverways was formed, with its current use, or the people who come here."

"If they wanted an animal to feature, why not an endangered hellbender?" she asked, referring to the rare Ozarks salamander. "Does the park service show a motel and a chipmunk to represent the Grand Canyon? A line of cars and lizard for Yellowstone? Show the Mill or a spring and a fiddler with jug of moonshine instead of a clueless kayaker and a dippy turtle!"

But Katharine Spigarelli, who frequently drives from her home in southeast Kansas to paddle the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, said she loved the imagery of the turtle and paddler enjoying a river together.

"I thought it gave you a real feel for the river," she said. "I liked the perspective of it being from the point of view of a fish."

The quarter is part of the U.S. Mint's "America the Beautiful" program that highlights scenic sites or historic moments in all 50 states. Two groups — one chartered by Congress and the other appointed by the president — came to different conclusions about which one tells the story of the two rivers, which are the heart of the national park, an hour and a half east of Springfield.

On Friday, the seven-member Council of Fine Arts, appointed by President Barrack Obama, recommended a drawing of historic Alley Milll,  established in 1868 near the Jacks Fork River to grind local farmers' grain.

"Our group thought it brought together the essence of the site, and combined elements of the natural area and spring and the mill," said council spokesman Thomas Luebke. "There was discussion of the turtle design, but there was concern that it was kind of generic, like that scene could have been from anywhere."

But the 11-member Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee almost unanimously recommended the turtle design, which the group's chairwoman called possibly the best coin design the group had ever seen.

"Our group felt the turtle design was really clean and would strike (print on a coin) well," said Mary Lannin, committee chairwoman. "From an artistic viewpoint, the dividing line between the turtle under water looking at the person enjoying the water on top was just very appealing."

Lannin said buildings on coins typically are "not real interesting" unless they are immediately recognizable.

"We prefer not to put something on a quarter that requires the individual to be intimately familiar with that building to understand its significance," she said. "And from a technical standpoint the Alley Mill design won't strike as well. When we looked at it you couldn't tell if it was water coming from the mill or a road."

The Ozark riverways park staff were surprised by the committee group's choice of the turtle view over Alley Mill.

"We did heavily suggest a design using Alley Mill for the coin," said park spokeswoman Dena Matteson. "We thought the mill was our most iconic cultural  choice."

Matteson acknowledged there were some concerns about how well the Alley Mill image would translate visually to a coin as small as a quarter.

"They (the citizens committee)  felt it was hard to tell what you were looking at," she said. "They felt the turtle  would make for a really eye-catching coin."

The turtle design appealed to paddler Scott Isham from nearby O'Fallon.

"First of all I've been kayaking the Eleven Point river for a few years now so I'm immediately drawn to the kayak simply because of shared experience," he said. "Secondly, one of my favorite parts of paddling this river is the presence of turtles, I actually keep aquatic turtles as pets. My son likes to count how many we see as we paddle the river. Lastly this coin is my preference over the other one because the other one just seems very plain and almost as if I've seen it many times before.

"While the appearance of the mill does give a good feel of the area the design simply does not capture my personal experience of the river while the other does. I'd also have to say I like the turtle coin because it seems more original not just another image of the mills."

Bill O'Donnell, a retired riverways park ranger who lives in Eminence, said he feared the turtle image focused too narrowly on paddlers, and ignored the many other park users, like those who ride horses, hike park trails or use jon boats to fish the rivers.

"The turtle design is pretty enough but it was done by someone who is unaware of the political differences that we have down here," O'Donnell said. "That's why the Alley Mill one is best. It's the picture most people take home from the park and it doesn't show any bias to anyone. I don't see any way people would object to the mill scene. It's on postcards. It's on T-shirts."

The two review groups considered nine designs to represent the park. The U.S. Treasury Secretary will make the final call, although he's not bound to choose from the two that were recommended.

Check out the other designs that were considered 

No matter which design is chosen, Matteson said the Ozark National Scenic park will benefit from the widely circulating publicity.

"For our park to be chosen to represent Missouri is a pretty great," she said. "We're going to be on the quarter and that's quite an honor."