D.C. residents have made their choice, now the final decision on the design for the D.C. commemorative quarter is up to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Mayor Adrian Fenty says more than 6,000 citizens expressed a preference from the three choices, and 36 percent of them voted to honor jazz legend Duke Ellington on the back of the quarter. The second-place choice was abolitionist Frederick Douglass, with 33 percent of the vote. Mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker had 31 percent.
The first-place design shows Ellington at the piano and includes the District's motto, "Justice for All."
This is not the first time that a design has been submitted for the district's commemorative quarter. In February, the U.S. Mint rejected the three designs initially proposed by the D.C. government due to their controversial "Taxation Without Representation" inscription.
The votes were cast online, by mail and by telephone. Fenty has sent the results of the voting to the U.S. Mint.
The quarter is scheduled to be released in January.
ABC 7 News to leave comments on news stories.