DC Quarter Rolls Out Today

The U.S. Mint will add the Washington, D.C., quarter into general circulation Monday, not as part of the "50 State Quarters Program," but as part of the lesser-known "DC and U.S. Territories Program."

The design on the D.C. quarter features an image of celebrated musician Duke Ellington seated at a piano. Ellington, who was born in D.C. in 1899, beat out Benjamin Banneker, who assisted with the original D.C. boundary survey, and Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist and statesman, for the right to be honored on the District's quarter.

The design of the 2009 coin includes the inscriptions "Duke Ellington" and the District of Columbia's official motto, "Justice For All."

It doesn't feature the inscription "Taxation Without Representation," which was nixed when the quarter was being designed.
The D.C. quarter is the first of six to be put into circulation in 2009.