> I bought a bag of Chee-tos today to eat with my lunch, and the vending machine gave me a shiny new New Hampshire quarter! It's got the Old Man of the Mountain on the back and the New Hampshire motto: "Live Free or Die" on it. Also has the date 1788 on it, which I presume is the date NH became a state.

Heh. I finally managed to get onto the US Mint's website... seems very busy all the time... and after clicking around wildly on the menus, located the 50 State Quarters Program. I think the NH quarter is cool -- it really does look like Profile Mountain. I want one!

You can find photos of the currently-released US quarters here: http://www.ssec.org/idis/gate/States/quarters.htm

Looks like you're going to have to wait until 2002 for Tennessee and Ohio quarters, and 2004 for Florida and Texas; 2005 for Oregon; 2006 for Colorado; and 2007 for Washington, Idaho, and Utah.

I must say, American coin designs have always had this unique "American woodcut-print" look to them. I have a Susan B. Anthony dollar and an eagle half-dollar which also has this look to them.

Canadian coins, and especially the 24 new quarter designs, just don't look like this. I don't know how to describe it, really, because lately they've gotten a lot more, ah, "creative" with the choices for the Millennium Collection quarters. Some of the designs chosen were interesting from an artistic point of view, and definitely were iconoclastic rather than political selections. Try this link to see:
http://www.rcmint.ca/products/en/main.cfm?Product_Id=262000&Section_Id=7&Area=Products