Jersey: Liberty is ours

Icon grab in design of quarter

WASHINGTON — New Jersey is riling New York politicians by claiming the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island as its own for a new quarter being issued in 2017.

The Garden State latched on to the worldfamous landmarks as part of a federal program honoring national parks and monuments on new quarters being issued by the US Mint.

Unfortunately for New Jersey, the Bada Bing club made famous on “The Sopranos” did not qualify.

“New Jersey really wants to be New York,” mocked Rep. Peter King (RLI). “They’re always trying to imitate us. They live in our shadow, and now they’re trying to make believe they are New York.”

Mint officials acknowledge that New Jersey’s choice of landmarks is challenging and said they are working with designers on an image “evocative” of New Jersey and not New York.

“When people say Ellis Island they always think of New York — and the Statue of Liberty, they don’t know the island is divided in two,” Mary Lannin, chair of the Mint committee that’s reviewing the coins, told The Post.

“We felt that the design of the New Jersey portion of Ellis Island should really be evocative of just the New Jersey part of it.”

Committee officials already turned down a handful of designs because they didn’t scream “Jersey.”

Designers are now trying to focus the Jersey coin on the portion of Ellis Island that is in the state and has no view of New York.

They have until March to figure out how to accomplish that.

The first time the feds allowed states to have a say in designing quarters, New Jersey in 1999 chose to depict George Washington crossing the Delaware River. New York went with the Statue of Liberty for its coin (above) in 2001.