This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I've never been a serious collector of anything. But from the time Caesar Rodney galloped into view on the back of the Delaware quarter, I've been hooked.
At first glance, I wondered why Paul Revere was on the back of the commemorative quarter for Delaware. Wasn't Revere from Massachusetts? But a closer look at the quarter revealed that the mounted figure wasn't Revere at all, but some guy named Rodney. That led me to find out who Caesar Rodney was, and I learned his role in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and why he's depicted on horseback on the Delaware coin.
Ever since, I've eagerly awaited the release of each new coin in the U.S. Mint's 50 State Quarters program. Part of the fun is that they just turn up in loose change. I don't collect uncirculated coins; that would spoil the surprise of discovering a new quarter in change from Starbucks.
About the time I learned that the Mint would release five quarters a year, in the order in which the states were admitted to the union, and that Utah's would be minted in 2007, I began to wonder what the design for Utah's quarter would be.
That's where the beehive comes in.
In July 2000, The Salt Lake Tribune published a story explaining the selection process and how, under the Mint's guidelines, depictions or logos of specific religious organizations were inappropriate for the quarters. That meant, according to the story, no Brigham Young, no Salt Lake LDS Temple, no beehive on the Utah quarter.
Imagine my surprise, then, when first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman earlier this month unveiled the three "concept designs" chosen by the state's commemorative coin commission: the completion of the transcontinental railroad, a snowboarder and - drum roll, please - the beehive.
Don't get me wrong. Ever since Hal Cannon and Allen Dodworth mounted an art exhibition called The Grand Beehive at the Salt Lake Art Center in 1980, I've thought that the skep, the old-fashioned woven beehive that you see on the state flag and carved, painted or illuminated in neon in various nooks and crannies around Utah, was my favorite symbol of our state's culture.
But given the Mint's guidelines, and the beehive's place in Utah as a Mormon symbol, it doesn't belong on the Utah commemorative quarter because it is not universal. It is representative of the LDS Church and Utah's Mormon roots, but not of anyone else.
Yes, I know. The beehive has many secular applications in Utah. It appears all kinds of places, from the state flag and the state seal to highway signs.
But as Cannon's essay in that exhibition's catalog made clear, the root of the Utah obsession with the beehive is Mormon iconography, in which the beehive is a symbol of the Kingdom of God, a harmonious society ruled by the Creator. That is why the beehive appears on door knobs in the Salt Lake LDS Temple under the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." That is why Brigham Young called his home the Beehive House. And that is why the beehive found its way onto the state flag and state seal.
Given this history, and the Mint's prohibition of exclusive religious symbolism on the state commemorative quarters, I am puzzled that the beehive was not disqualified as a design element.
My inquiries about this to Margaret Hunt, chair of the commemorative quarter commission, brought this response:
"We (the Commission), as well as the general counsel of the U.S. Mint, were very much aware of the beehive's religious connotation and the perception by some of its use as a religious reference. . . . Because of this concern, and our understanding that it might have had roots in Masonic or Mormon culture, we asked the U.S. Mint to do some research. The commission felt responsible to weigh these concerns with the fact that the beehive was one of the top submissions, equal in number to the submissions for the mountains and winter sports concept.
"I provided the U.S. Mint with some source references on the beehive including Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation, by Tammy Horn, University of Kentucky Press, 2005, which refers to historical uses of the beehive. We also searched http://www.lds.org under the 'search' icon which brings up a 'search the scriptures' section and could find no reference to the beehive in LDS scriptures.
"In addition, the Mint conducted its own reference search. After they concluded their due diligence, and with the blessing of the U.S. Mint general counsel, we felt comfortable with including it as a design concept."
A spokesman for the Mint said that its attorney was satisfied that the beehive was as much a cultural and historical symbol as a religious one.
The one-paragraph narrative that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. provided to the Mint talks about the beehive's place on the state's flag, how Utah's nickname is the Beehive State and how the honey bee is the state insect, but makes no mention of how all of these symbols derive directly from Mormonism.
It looks to me like state and Mint officials are being either deliberately superficial or downright deceptive. I'm not sure which.
What I do know is that if they want to pick a quarter design that can represent all Utahns, and avoid creating another flash point for Utah's religious divide, they will deep-six the beehive.
---
Paul Wetzel is an editorial writer for The Salt Lake Tribune.