Collecting Friends: State Flags and Good Design

State Flags and Good Design

Steve: I’ve never really questioned state flags. So, when Utah adopted a new flag in 2024, I was surprised that some Utahns wanted to make their flag more distinct and recognizable, and that this was even an option. Utah elected to create a new flag and make the old one the “Historic State Flag.” 

The “old” flag was blue with a state seal in the center that recalls other states like Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire. The new one looks more like a logo that a sport’s team would use, combining the state’s geography with snow-capped mountains, red-rock canyons, and referencing the state’s nickname the Beehive State, which connects with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It combines elements of the historical flag into the new design. A deeper dive (courtesy of the state’s website) describes the flag as showcasing Utah’s values, pride and unity:

Blue Field: At the top of the design, the blue stripe represents Utah’s wide-open skies and our lakes, as well as core principles such as faith, knowledge, freedom, optimism, and tradition. Blue serves as a backdrop of the design, and is linked to the background of the historic flag.

Mountains: The rugged white stripe represents Utah’s snowy mountain peaks, which have cradled residents — including our state’s eight Tribal nations, who are still here and still thriving — from time immemorial. This color evokes peace and our state’s world-famous snow.

Red Canyons Stripe: The red-rock canyon represents Southern Utah’s majestic landscape, which millions of people from around the world travel to see. The color symbolizes perseverance, and nods to the red strips of the United States flag, but on the Utah flag the value of the red color is slightly warmer in hue.

Hexagon: A gold rim stands for prosperity, while the hexagon shape – among nature’s strongest shapes — cradles the beehive and represents unity and the strength of Utah’s people.

Beehive: The beehive represents Utah’s history and a sense of community, plus "Industry," our state’s slogan.

Star: At the foundation of the beehive is a five-pointed star, which represents hope and 1896, the year Utah achieved statehood and became the 45th star on America’s flag, a sign of our loyalty to our country.

That’s a lot of symbolism! The New York Times asked Ted Kaye, a vexillologist (someone who studies flags like a numismatist studies coins), what were the elements of good flag design. He provided five principles: 

1. They are simple and easy to remember;
2. They display symbols that are meaningful to their state;
3. They use just a few colors;
4. They don’t rely on lettering or seals (see the “Historic State Flag” above);
5. They don’t look like any other state’s flag (again, see above). 

Some of the most recognizable State flags, like Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico and Texas largely follow these. Other state flags are less successful: Nebraska’s flew upside-down outside the State Capitol a few years ago without notice. 

It made me think about the designs of the 50 State Quarter series and how the mountains are seen on the 2007 Utah quarter – alongside two locomotives moving toward the golden spike that join Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads. 

Kaye’s standards provide a useful framework to consider the 50 State Quarter designs (though the absence of color at the U.S. Mint renders all coins successful in his criteria to use just a few colors).

Dennis, in your eight years at the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) what standards did you consider when selecting designs that have a connection to a specific state?  

Dennis: The State Quarters program was already in the history books when you and I started our CCAC service in 2016, so the state-specific coins that come to mind are the American Innovation dollars. That program started in 2018 and will run through 2032, with one coin for each state, the District of Columbia, and five territories. 

So far, state governors have exercised a lot of influence in the themes and designs for the American Innovation dollars. The coins’ final designs are chosen by the secretary of the Treasury, of course, as all U.S. coin and medal designs are. But the office of each governor picks the theme (or several potential themes) for their state’s coin. And once the Mint has created a portfolio of design candidates, the governor can indicate any preferences among them.

Naturally the Treasury secretary listens carefully to the governors. This gives the states a powerful hand in the final designs—and rightly so! Governors are connected to state historians, museums, civic groups, and other subject-matter experts, as well as to the general public. It makes sense for them to be so closely involved in their states’ coins.

In some cases, when a governor’s office provides more than one potential theme for its dollar, the CCAC can recommend its own preference. For example, Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky proposed two potential themes for the Commonwealth’s coin: Kentucky bluegrass music, and the Frontier Nursing Service. The latter was an innovation of nurse-midwives who provided home healthcare, traveling on horseback, to 700 square miles of rural Kentucky. This program started in the 1920s and has evolved into a modern powerhouse of health services and medical education.

[“What might have been”—one of several design candidates for the Frontier Nursing Service. Image courtesy U.S. Mint.]

As important as the Frontier Nursing Service was, we were informed in our March 2021 public meeting that the Commonwealth’s strong preference was for the bluegrass theme. Coulter Minix (at that time, director of Governor Beshear’s Washington, D.C., office) told us that “music has always played a central role in Kentucky’s history and culture, and scores of Kentuckians have contributed immeasurably to many genres.” He agreed with April Stafford, chief of the Mint’s Office of Design Management, who noted that “Kentucky is synonymous with bluegrass music, a Kentucky musical innovation that takes its name directly from the Commonwealth.”

[Kentucky’s American Innovation dollar design by Artistic Infusion Program Artist Christina Hess. This was preferred by the Commonwealth’s governor, recommended by the CCAC, and chosen by the Secretary of the Treasury. Image courtesy U.S. Mint.]

Senior CCAC member Donald Scarinci expressed that “we really need to give some deference to the states,” noting that governors are elected by the people, to represent the people. “We [the CCAC] are not elected. We are doing our job . . . to [recommend] the best designs we possibly can. But our job is not to substitute ourselves for the judgment of those [who are elected] by the public.”

In addition to governors’ preferences, the Treasury secretary does consider the recommendations of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the CCAC when making final decisions on these coin designs. The CCAC could have recommended the Frontier Nursing Service theme, instead of bluegrass music. In fact, there was some push in that direction during our review. Dr. Lawrence Brown, a physician, expressed his preference for the Frontier Nursing Service, saying that “prenatal care, and child care, particularly, is really something that is close to my heart.” But after much discussion we recommended the bluegrass theme, and design 3A. This was the one favored by the governor’s office. It eventually became the design we see today on Kentucky’s 2022 American Innovation dollar. [Image: In its final coined form, Kentucky’s chosen design was slightly modified from the original sketch. Courtesy U.S. Mint.]

For me, the design captured everything it needed: The name of the state is prominent. The connection to the innovation is clear. The design makes clever use of the coin’s round canvas, showing a banjo head. It has good typography, evocative of the Kentucky bluegrass style. Even if you take the word KENTUCKY off the coin, there’d be no mistaking it for a Rhode Island dollar or a New York dollar. It’s not a state flag, but it definitely says “Kentucky”! It makes a good coin, and I think it satisfies the spirit of Ted Kaye’s advice on good flag design.

Be on the lookout for another installment of Collecting Friends next month or subscribe here and never miss a post! In the meantime, explore beautiful coins from the ANA's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum Virtual Exhibits.

About the Collecting Friends Blog

Hello! And welcome to the ANA’s blog series, “Collecting Friends.”

We decided to approach this much like a conversation between friends. One of us starts with a topic, then the other responds. Simple as that. Along those lines, we’ll keep the tone conversational as much as possible. 

We both write about coins professionally, and will keep our relative style guides in our writing. For Dennis, Publisher at Whitman Publishing, that means capitalizing “Proof” and italicizing Red Book and never saying anything bad about Ken Bressett, who’s awesome anyway. 

For Steve, who’s written with Coin World for 15 years, it means Winged Liberty Head dime instead of “Mercury” dime, and similar nuances and oddities. And, it means writing A Guide Book of United States Coins (better known as the “Red Book”). 

Both of us started collecting when we were little, introduced to coins by a chance encounter with an old coin that sparked our curiosity. One of Steve’s interests is coin valuation, and he gravitates towards the intersection of art and coins. Dennis enjoys medals and world coins, and studying modern U.S. coins in the context of older series, what came before.

We met in 2012 at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Philadelphia at an event hosted by the Austrian Mint where there was both a Ben Franklin and a Betsy Ross impersonator. We’ve become great friends in the past decade. We even were appointed together to sit on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee starting in 2016, but Steve resigned soon after he was appointed to accept a full-time job at the Treasury Department while Dennis was re-appointed in 2020.

We taught a course together on numismatic publishing and writing a few years ago at the Summer Seminar, and while life has gotten in the way of us teaching another class, we jumped at our friend Caleb’s suggestion that we write a column. We hope you enjoy it! 

About the American Numismatic Association

The American Numismatic Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and encouraging people to study and collect coins and related items. The Association serves collectors, the general public, and academic communities with an interest in numismatics.