South Carolina
A Southern state famous for the palmetto tree. Its reverse holds the state bird, flower, and tree together.
South Carolina is a state on the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States, and its nickname is “The Palmetto State.” The palmetto is a kind of palm tree that grows in this region, and it is the state tree. In the 50 State Quarters series, it was issued in 2000 as the eighth coin (No. 8).
On the coin’s reverse, three things that symbolize the state are gathered in one place. The state bird, the Carolina wren; the state flower, the yellow jessamine; and the state tree, the cabbage palmetto, are engraved together with the state outline, and below is written “The Palmetto State.”
This design, holding bird, flower, and tree together on a single coin, carries the meaning that the nature of that land is itself the identity of that state. The palmetto tree in particular is a symbol South Carolinians have long cherished and taken pride in, and so it appears directly in the nickname as well.
South Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788, becoming the eighth state. It is one of the early states that took part when the nation of America was first taking shape.
Holding the coin and examining the bird, flower, and tree one by one, we come to feel that what best introduces a region may not be some grand event, but the nature that is always there.