New Hampshire's 'pinched little joykillers'

The New Hampshire quarter, minted in 2000. But the Old Man of the Mountain (which brooded over Franconia Notch) fell apart on May 3, 2003.

A composite image of the Old Man of the Mountain created from images taken before and after the collapse.

“New Hampshire has always been cheap, mean, rural, small-minded, and reactionary. It's one of the few states in the nation with neither a sales tax nor an income tax. Social services are totally inadequate there, it ranks at the bottom in state aid to education--the state is literally shaped like a dunce cap--and its medical assistance program is virtually nonexistent. Expecting aid for the poor there is like looking for an egg under a basilisk.... The state encourages skinflints, cheapskates, shut wallets, and pinched little joykillers who move there as a tax refuge to save money.’’

— Alexander Theroux (born in 1939 in Medford, Mass.), American poet and novelist. He’s a brother of the better known travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux.

The state seal. The ship is a reference to the state’s Port of Portsmouth, which long played a key role in the state’s economy.