Don Carbaugh noticed it from the get-go.

There was a depiction of a buffalo on a quarter, the design that could represent Kansas to millions of change-spending Americans, that could decide who kicks off at high school football games, that could fill soda pop dispensers and slot machines nationwide.

And the buffalo’s horns, well, they’re just not pointing the right direction. They point forward instead of up.

“This my pet peeve about artists,” the former buffalo rancher said. “They assume buffalo have horns like cattle. But they’re built differently, damn it.”

The buffalo is on one of four designs considered by high school students this week in voting across Kansas. The winning drawing will be used on the official state quarter, which comes out in August 2005.

The buffalo was the runaway winner in the Lawrence public schools, roping in nearly 38 percent of the vote.

The bison is Carbaugh’s pick for the quarter, too — if its horns are fixed.

It’s a phenomenon Carbaugh has noticed since the ’60s, when he started raising buffalo between Lawrence and Tonganoxie.

Instead of pointing up — the correct orientation for buffalo horns — depictions often have them pointing toward the bison’s snout. The buffalo nickel, produced between 1913 and 1938, also appears to have the wrong positioning.

Actual buffalo horns are parallel to the ground when the animals lower their heads in attack mode. That helps fend off potential predators, Carbaugh said. The positioning also protects bison eyes, which are on the sides of their head.

Gary Chaput, ranch manager at the L.C.L. Buffalo Ranch in Clifton, feeds Junior, a 2,000-pound buffalo, by hand in this 2003 file photo. Don Carbaugh, a former buffalo rancher, was disappointed to see the animal's horns pointing the wrong way in the depiction on one of the state quarter proposals.

“It’d just be an embarrassment,” he said, if the horns were wrong. “They’ll probably turn into a collector’s item. They sure screwed up there.”

But buffalo purists shouldn’t stampede to the governor’s office to protest.

Vicki Buening, director of constituent services for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, said whichever design announced as the winner Thursday would receive a final review before it was sent to the U.S. Mint.

She said an engraving company had taken written suggestions from Kansans to come up with the proposed designs.

“If that’s the selected one, we’ll make sure the details for that are right,” she said. “If there’s a discrepancy on the horns, we’ll make sure that’s correct.”

Former buffalo rancher Don Carbaugh says both the new proposed quarter design and old buffalo nickel show the horns pointing the wrong way.

She said the horn problem already had been discussed by those guiding the quarter-selection process. They also discussed the size of the petals on the sunflowers that are depicted on two designs and how many “beards” extended from the wheat stalks on another.

Buening wasn’t entirely sure the horns would need to be changed.

“Because of the way the buffalo is facing, it’s sort of the way you look at it,” she said. “And then you reduce it down to the size of a quarter …”

Maria Martin, owner of the Lawrence art gallery Southwest and More, 727 Mass., said a quick survey of items depicting buffalo at her shop showed several buffalo with their horns pointing straight up. They were engravings done by Zuni tribe members.

But other bison at the shop appeared to have horns that slanted somewhat toward the ground.

“I never thought about it, and I haven’t heard anyone make comments about that,” she said. “Now I’ll be paying attention to every single buffalo I see.”

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