A sheaf of wheat, a team of plowhorses and a sunflower. A soldier, Sitting Bull and Theodore Roosevelt.

Dozens of North Dakotans have suggested possible designs for the state's commemorative quarter. Officials are soliciting suggestions until July 1. It is part of a U.S. Mint initiative to design quarters for all 50 states.

"It seems that the best designs are the ones that are not overly complicated," said Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who is chairman of a newly appointed commission that will oversee the coin's initial development. It will not be produced until 2006.

"You can put too many things on the back of a quarter, and have it wind up not looking very interesting at all," Dalrymple said.

Since Gov. John Hoeven announced the commission's appointment a month ago, North Dakotans have floated more than 50 design suggestions.

"Wheat to represent farmers. Bison to represent Native Americans. Children to represent the future," says one.

Others say some North Dakota historical figures should be featured: former President Theodore Roosevelt, who once ranched in North Dakota; Sitting Bull, a renowned Sioux chief; or Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who led a group of explorers up the Missouri River in the early 1800s. The party spent its first winter north of what is now Mandan.

Ron Gumeringer of Bismarck, a longtime coin collector, proposed using a portrait of Roosevelt, Sitting Bull and Sakakawea, an Indian guide and translator on the Lewis and Clark expedition.

The three images would be used in the background, with cattle, a sheaf of wheat and a prairie butte in the foreground, Gumeringer suggested.

The Mint has manufactured quarters for 27 states since the program began in 1999. It is releasing five quarters annually, in the order the states were admitted to the Union. Quarters for both North Dakota and South Dakota will be issued in 2006.

North Dakota will be submitting five proposed designs, which Mint designers will use to make drawings of how the coins should look. North Dakotans will then have a chance to give their opinions on their own favorites.

Normally, a quarter features George Washington's profile on one side and an eagle on the other. The North Dakota image will replace the eagle when the quarter is manufactured, and at least 400 million will be made.

Bob Phillips, a former director of Bismarck's Capitol City Coin Club, likes the idea of using an image similar to "Pioneer Family," a statue at the foot of the state Capitol mall. Dedicated in 1947, the statue depicts a man, woman and child on the prairie.

"We're a state of diversity, and we can't get it all on a coin, obviously. But the people are what make our state," Phillips said. "We can't just say we're going to put a grain elevator on it. That's not enough. Because the grain elevator was built by the people, not the other way around."