A Pocketful of History by Jim Noles
June 29th, 2009Title: A Pocketful of History
Author: Jim Noles
Publisher: DaCapo Press (2008)
Do any of you collect the US State Quarters? Back in 1999 when they started the program of issuing a quarter for each state in the union people got really excited about it and started to collect them. I assume the excitement waned a bit and now a lot of people have books half filled with quarters. I was never really interested in coin collecting, but this program caught my attention because I like US history. I don’t think I’d care to have all 50 quarters (to be honest…I’d rather have the $12.50!)…but I was interested in why each state chose a specific design. Now, thanks to this book…I know!
A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America – One State Quarter at a Time by Jim Noles is full of interesting facts. Besides having a clever title, the book has chapters devoted to each state quarter, what the design means, and the story behind the design. I found the trivia to be very interesting.
Being from Ohio, the first thing I read was our quarter. As you can see, there is the Wright Brothers’ plane and an astronaut. The rules of the quarter program said there could not be an image of a living person…but Ohio was able to break that rule by not defining exactly who the person was. 
(it is either John Glenn or Neil Armstrong – both from Ohio). I think it’s interesting that the Ohio quarter stakes claim to flight and the Wright Bros (because they were from Dayton, OH)…and so does North Carolina on their license plates (because Kittyhawk, NC is where the first light actually took place).
Each chapter gives a nice, short synopsis of the coin. The funniest was Michigan, which Noles calls the most boring quarter design. And well…that’s pretty much true. It is just a map of Michigan with the Great Lakes surrounding it. Boring.
What is on your state quarter? Do you know why?
Rating: 4 out of 5
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