"Many of them don't come near representing the vision we had," said Secretary of State John Gale, who heads the committee that has worked to select designs for the quarter to be released in 2006.

In spite of the grumbling, the committee voted on four designs. Slight revisions to each were suggested and the Mint will then return another version.

"Hopefully we'll be pleased with what we get," Gale said.

The final designs were chosen from 19 options for the Standing Bear coin, 15 for Chimney Rock and six for each the Sower and the Capitol.

The governor next year will select the one quarter design out of the four that will be circulated.

Members of the committee didn't hold back in their disdain for some of the designs, which were based on descriptions, images and photographs submitted in September by the committee.

"It's the grim reaper," Gale said of one likeness of the Sower statue from atop the Capitol.

"Some angry engraver doesn't like Nebraska," Tom Bassett said of the image.

Gale expressed the most disappointment with the images returned for Chimney Rock, some of which depicted settlers in cartoon style.

"It's a pretty poor capture of what I think is a rich history," Gale said.

One design made Chimney Rock look like a stone wall, Gale said. A staff member assisting the committee said a settler in another looked like bearded country singer Kenny Rogers.

On the quarter showing Chief Standing Bear, many of the images done by the Mint do not mirror the known photographs of the chief.

"I think the artists were just going on what they thought an Indian chief should look like," committee member Jodi Rave said.

The design process in Nebraska started with the submission of 6,500 ideas from the public.

Those were then narrowed by the selection committee to the four that were sent to the Mint.

The commemorative quarter program began in 1999, with five new states released each year in the order in which they joined the union. Nebraska was the 37th state to join the union in 1867.