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Alaska will be hosting its State quarter dollar launch ceremony Aug. 29 during the Alaska State Fair in Palmer.
The coin depicts a grizzly bear emerging from the water clutching a salmon in its jaw. The North Star is above the inscription the great land. Although we don't know all the details yet on what kind of special touches the Alaska ceremony will have, we do know that the date coincides with a significant event at the fair.
This is the same day as the 13th annual Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off at the state fair.
Now we're not talking about your average grocery store little cabbage you can hoist with one hand. No, we're talking cabbage with a capital C! The cabbage that won the Alaska State Fair title in 2007 weighed 87.7 pounds. It not only earned its owner/grower first prize but $2,000 in cash.
The event offers more than $5,000 in cash prizes for winning entrants and even includes a special category for children under the age of 12.
If readers know anything about slang for money, they might be amused that there will be ceremonies about money and cabbage on the same day. Here's the clue: "cabbage" is a slang term for money.
The term first shows up in the hard-boiled detective novels of the 1920s. Raymond Chandler's fictional tough-guy private-eye character and detectives created by fellow writer Dashiell Hammett, often used slang like "berries" and "rhino" and "spinach" when they were referring to money.
But the whole issue of large cabbage is taken pretty seriously at the Alaska State Fair. A news release from the state fair compares winning the contest with "winning the Iditarod, summiting Denali or catching a huge salmon."
So if you're planning on attending the Alaska State quarter dollar launch, you might want to stick around until 6 p.m. and catch the cabbage weigh-in contest. If you do, share your thoughts and images.
Meanwhile, back the issue of acquiring rolled State quarter dollars, Bruce Talbott of Minnesota writes that he shares the coins from the rolls he gets with others.
Talbott writes that he gets two rolls of each State quarter dollar from his credit union. He opens both rolls "because I exchange about a roll's worth of the D [Denver Mint struck] quarters with others. I exchange with about a half dozen co-workers so they can continue their State quarter collections," Talbott writes. He said he also exchanges some of the Denver Mint coins with relatives in Ohio and they send him State quarter dollars struck at the Philadelphia Mint.
"I then look through the rest of the quarters from the rolls, looking for errors, unusual coins, and the best ones for my State quarter collections. I try to keep a roll's worth of mixed D and P Mint quarters on hand for each state," Talbott writes.
"I use them to help others fill holes in their State quarter collections. Some people [started] their collections late in the series and need help finding the earlier quarters," he concludes.
First Reports
Goldie Grise of Massachusetts reported June 19 that she got a roll of 2008-P Arizona quarter dollars.
Circulation Reports
We did not receive any reports this week.
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