Can Coins Predict Elections

In 2004, the ex-Governor from Texas George Bush won a second term over Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. This was also the year when the Texas State Quarter was released into circulation. Perhaps if Senator Kerry ran for president in 2000, when the Massachusetts state quarter was circulating, he would have fared better? By the way, neither Al Gore nor his running mate Joe Lieberman had a state quarter in their corner in the year 2000.

This year we have an interesting development in that Arizona Senator John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin both have state quarters backing their charge for the White House in 2008. While Barack Obama's State of Illinois had its quarter in circulation since 2003, his birth state of Hawaii is to be commemorated with the very last of the 50 state quarter series later this year. For the record Senator Joseph Biden's state of Delaware was honored in 1999 and was, interestingly, the first state quarter of the entire series.

So what has more oomph; the very first paired with the very last state quarter or two state quarters released in the very same election year? And what can glean from all this information besides the fact that one web developer spent a little too much time on Wikipedia? If nothing else, it's just one more way in which this will be an historic election. Whichever candidate pulls off a victory, he may be honored with a Presidential Dollar Coin as the 44th President in the year 2017 if the series is continued that long.