North Carolina
Where humanity's first powered flight took place. "The Tar Heel State," engraved with the Wright brothers' airplane.
North Carolina is a Southern state bordering the Atlantic, and its nickname is “The Tar Heel State.” Several stories are told about the origin of this nickname, but it is said to be related to the fact that forest products such as pine resin and tar obtained from pine trees were an important industry in this region from long ago. In the 50 State Quarters series, it was issued as the twelfth coin.
On the coin’s reverse is engraved a symbolic photograph capturing an early airplane flying through the sky and the people watching that scene from below. It is a rendering of the Wright brothers’ first airplane (the Wright Flyer) and the famous photograph by John T. Daniels that captured that very moment.
The phrase written below is “First Flight.” That historic moment when a human first flew through the sky by the power of a machine took place on the coast of North Carolina. And so this state is remembered as the starting point where humanity opened the pathways of the sky.
North Carolina joined the Union on November 21, 1789, becoming, in order, the twelfth state. Though it is a state with a long history, on the coin it chose to engrave a moment soaring toward the future.
Looking at the small airplane on the coin, we encounter once again, right in our hand, how the age-old dream of “can a human really fly?” became reality.