Heads or tails? State quarter ideas down to 3

The beehive and state flower concept was predictable. Two trains meeting at the "crossroads" of the West, appropriately historical.

But the image of a young female snowboarder catching some air and welcoming the world on the back of Utah's state quarter?

"It represents a fresh look at Utah," the state's first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman said Thursday after a press conference in Salt Lake City.

Huntsman unveiled three designs that emerged from about 5,000 entries submitted by adults and mostly children from Utah and elsewhere.

Huntsman did not reveal a favorite nor would she say how much influence she'll have in the decision-making process.

By law, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. gets to have the final say on which of the three designs will be minted and released in the winter of 2007.

Before that happens, the Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Mint officials will weigh in. The public will also be invited sometime this March or April to comment via the Web site www.arts.utah.gov.

The ideas that didn't make it to Mint drawing boards?

There were UFOs in the western desert, a quarter with a hole in the middle (meaning, 10 percent is automatically taken out) and skiers going through Delicate Arch, according to Bob Campbell, a numismatist (coin collector) and former chairman of the design selection committee. Campbell looked at every entry.

"There were lots of unusual designs," he said.

Delicate Arch is on Utah license plates, but it doesn't appear to be headed to the state quarter, though there is a rendition of the famous scene shown on the non-government Web site, www.quarterdesigns.com.

Utah is among five Western states waiting to have quarters minted with their names and designs in 2007.

Existing quarter designs for neighboring states include California's mountains with the banners, "Yosemite Valley" and "John Muir," Colorado's mountains with the banner, "Colorful Colorado," and Nevada's more complex scene of mountains, sunrise, wild horses, sage and the banner, "The Silver State."

The designs are supposed to be "simple," historically accurate and they cannot endorse any commercial entity, said Margaret Hunt, chairman of the Utah Commemorative Quarter Commission.

"We knew that the design should be unique to Utah," she said.