The Quarter Council was charged with sifting through the 9,000 designs submitted from residents. It put each of them into one of three themes--early exploration, agriculture and scenic Wisconsin--and then narrowed those down to three designs per theme. The group then worked with the U.S. Mint to select three finalists, since designs drawn on paper don't always lend themselves to being engraved and stamped on metal.
Controversy arose when the governor overturned the recommendation of the council after a public vote on the three designs via the Internet showed that 40 percent favored the agricultural theme, 32 percent chose the early exploration design and 28 percent wanted scenic Wisconsin.
Opponents of the agriculture theme fumed that the Internet vote was stacked and that there is more to the state than cows. But a vibrant agricultural community still exists that wants to promote its products. "In the end, do we err on the side of the public vote or err on the side of a 23-person council?" asked Kathryn Carlson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Financial Institutions.