MARCH 12
2024•Mint Selects 25 New Coin and Medal Artists
2004•Philadelphia Mint Historic Marker / Westward Journey Nickel
The U.S. Mint Selects 25 New Artists to Help Design America's Coins and Medals
On March 12, 2024, the United States Mint announced the selection of 25 new artists for its Artistic Infusion Program, joining 13 returning members of the program's existing cohort. Established in 2003, the AIP brings professional artists from outside the Mint into the federal coin and medal design process. Their work can ultimately appear on circulating coins, commemoratives, Congressional Gold Medals, American Liberty issues and other national numismatic programs. The announcement offered a rare look behind the finished coin—at the artists whose drawings can become the images Americans carry in their pockets and preserve in their collections.
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Every coin begins before the press.
Before metal moves.
Before dies are cut.
Before collectors argue about whether a design is beautiful.
Someone has to decide what the coin should look like.
The Artists Behind the Coins
For much of American history, coin design was closely associated with the small group of engravers employed directly by the United States Mint.
Names such as Robert Scot, Christian Gobrecht, James B. Longacre, Charles Barber, George T. Morgan and John R. Sinnock became inseparable from the coins they created.
Modern coinage uses a broader artistic system.
One important part of that system is the Artistic Infusion Program.
On March 12, the Mint announced that 25 American artists had been selected to participate in the AIP.
They joined 13 returning members of the existing cohort.
The new artists had been chosen on the artistic merit of applications submitted during a national Call for Artists in early 2023.
The Mint established the AIP in 2003.
Its purpose is to expand and invigorate the design of United States coins and medals by creating a pool of talented professional artists outside the Mint's permanent engraving staff.
These artists work with Mint personnel to develop candidate designs for selected programs.
An AIP artist does not need to relocate to a mint facility and become a full-time federal engraver.
The program contracts artists who can work from studios around the country.
They bring experience from painting, illustration, graphic design, sculpture, drawing and other visual disciplines.
That arrangement allows the Mint to draw from a much larger artistic community.
Why Create the Program?
Coin design is unusually demanding.
The canvas is tiny.
The final object must be struck in metal.
It must survive manufacturing constraints.
It often must tell a historical story using only a portrait, a few symbols and several legally required inscriptions.
The AIP was created to broaden the range of artists thinking about those problems.
The Mint issued its original nationwide Call for Artists on November 20, 2003.
Professional artists and college students were invited to apply.
The Mint worked with the National Endowment for the Arts during the evaluation process.
More than 300 applications were received.
In February 2004, the Mint announced a pool of 24 artists for the new program.
Eighteen were established professional artists and six were college students.
The group included painters, engravers, sculptors, illustrators, graphic artists, calligraphers, photographers, woodcut artists and watercolorists.
The significance was structural.
The Mint was no longer relying only on its own in-house engraving staff for candidate artwork.
Outside artists could compete to create imagery for national coins and medals.
The program opened a new pathway into American numismatic art.
By the March 2024 announcement, the AIP had existed for more than two decades.
Its designers had contributed artwork to numerous major Mint programs.
The experimental idea from 2003 had become an established part of the design system.
The artists newly selected in 2024 represented a wide range of styles and backgrounds.
The Mint's announcement identified them alongside returning designers, creating a combined cohort prepared to compete for future assignments.
Selection did not mean that every artist would automatically have a design placed on a coin.
It meant they had entered the pool from which candidate designs could be commissioned.
Joining the AIP is only the beginning.
For a particular coin or medal, multiple artists may prepare candidate designs.
Those designs can be reviewed by Mint officials and federal advisory bodies.
The Secretary of the Treasury has statutory authority over final coin designs in many programs.
The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, commonly called the CCAC, reviews proposed coin and medal designs and advises the Secretary of the Treasury.
Its public meetings provide collectors with an unusual window into the federal design process.
Committee members discuss composition, symbolism, historical accuracy, inscriptions and artistic quality.
The Commission of Fine Arts
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts also reviews many coin and medal designs.
Its recommendations can differ from those of the CCAC.
That means a design may pass through several layers of artistic and institutional evaluation before a final selection is made.
Advisory recommendations are influential but not always decisive.
The Treasury Secretary's approval is central to the final selection process for U.S. coinage designs.
Occasionally, the final choice differs from the design preferred by one or both advisory groups.
Coin design is therefore both an artistic and governmental process.
One of the most important things to understand about modern U.S. coins is that the person who creates the selected drawing may not be the person who sculpts it into production-ready relief.
An AIP artist can be credited as the designer.
A Mint medallic artist can be credited as the sculptor.
That is why many modern U.S. coins show two sets of tiny artist initials.
One can identify the designer.
The other can identify the Mint artist who sculpted the design.
The initials turn the coin itself into a record of artistic collaboration.
A successful illustration on paper or screen still has to work as shallow relief on metal.
Fine lines may disappear.
Deep areas can create striking problems.
Large flat fields may behave differently under pressure.
Lettering must remain readable.
Relief must coexist with the physical limitations of dies, planchets and presses.
Mint medallic artists bridge the gap between two-dimensional artwork and a manufacturable object.
Modern digital tools assist the process, but sculptural judgment remains essential.
The final coin is not merely a printed illustration transferred to metal.
It is relief sculpture engineered for mass production.
The United States Mint still maintains the historic position of Chief Engraver.
In 2024, Joseph Menna held that role.
The AIP does not replace the Mint's professional artistic staff.
It expands the pool of designers who can work with them.
The Mint describes AIP artists as working closely with the Chief Engraver and medallic artists.
That relationship matters.
An outside artist brings a fresh visual perspective.
The Mint's internal team brings specialized knowledge of coin production.
The finished design can benefit from both.
What Kinds of Coins Have AIP Artists Designed?
AIP artwork has appeared across a remarkable range of programs:
- America the Beautiful quarters
- Native American $1 coins
- commemorative coins
- American Innovation $1 coins
- American Liberty coins and medals
- platinum proof coins
- Congressional Gold Medals
- silver and bronze medals
The program's influence extends far beyond one denomination.
One of the best-known AIP designers is Emily Damstra.
Her work has appeared on numerous United States coins and medals.
Among her most visible designs is the reverse introduced on the American Eagle silver bullion coin in 2021.
Her career demonstrates how an outside artist can develop a substantial body of national numismatic work.
Chris Costello has designed multiple U.S. coins through the AIP.
His credits include America the Beautiful quarters and commemorative issues.
His work illustrates how the program allows an artist to move between landscapes, portraits and historical subjects.
Justin Kunz has contributed designs to major modern Mint programs, including American Liberty issues.
His work demonstrates the AIP's role not only in circulating coinage but in premium collector products where the Mint can explore more experimental imagery.
Elana Hagler joined the AIP in 2019.
Her designs have included the Sally Ride American Women quarter and American Liberty work.
She provides a clear example of the designer-sculptor distinction: her selected artwork can be translated into relief by a Mint medallic artist.
Benjamin Sowards has produced designs for coins and Congressional Gold Medals.
His work reflects another strength of the program: the same artist may be asked to address subjects ranging from historical individuals to national achievements.
Donna Weaver has a particularly interesting connection to the program because her numismatic career includes both Mint experience and AIP work.
Her designs demonstrate how institutional medallic knowledge and outside-program participation can overlap.
A gallery painting may be seen by thousands.
A circulating coin can be handled by millions.
That scale gives numismatic design an unusual public reach.
A quarter reverse can become one of the most widely reproduced pieces of artwork an artist ever creates.
The physical diameter of a coin imposes severe discipline.
A complex historical story may need to be reduced to one gesture.
A national park may need to become one cliff, tree or animal.
A person's lifetime may need to become one portrait and one symbolic element.
Symbolism Becomes Essential
The Mint has repeatedly emphasized the importance of symbolism in AIP design.
That is because literal illustration often cannot carry enough meaning at coin scale.
A bird, star, book, tool, plant, building or pose can communicate an entire theme when chosen carefully.
Human faces are unforgiving.
A small change in eye, mouth or cheek can alter likeness and expression.
The portrait must also survive reduction and striking.
Artists designing biographical coins therefore balance resemblance with sculptural clarity.
Coins are shallow relief objects.
Landscapes depend on depth and distance.
Artists must create the illusion of foreground, middle ground and background within a fraction of a millimeter of relief.
America the Beautiful quarters gave AIP artists repeated opportunities to solve that problem.
Federal coin designs are not free-form fantasy.
Uniforms, buildings, tools, flags and cultural symbols can carry historical implications.
The Mint may consult subject-matter experts and sponsoring organizations.
A visually strong design can still fail if it misrepresents its subject.
Coins also require words.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
LIBERTY.
IN GOD WE TRUST.
E PLURIBUS UNUM.
Denominations.
Names, dates and program-specific inscriptions may also be required.
The artist must compose around typography that cannot simply be omitted.
Many modern coin programs begin with acts of Congress.
The law may specify the people, event or institution to be honored.
It can require certain inscriptions or themes.
Artists work creatively within those legal boundaries.
A program may begin with many possible concepts.
Artists produce candidate drawings.
Mint staff refine the field.
Advisory groups review designs.
Stakeholders may comment.
The Treasury approves a final design.
Mint artists then prepare it for production.
Only at the end does the public see the coin.
The 2024 announcement did not unveil a specific new quarter or dollar.
Instead, it identified people who might create future designs.
Some of their artwork could eventually become familiar to millions.
Others might submit many designs without having one selected.
This distinction is important.
Being chosen for the AIP is prestigious, but it is not the same as being selected to design a specific coin.
The artists enter a competitive professional pool.
Final design credits are earned assignment by assignment.
Pairing 25 new artists with 13 returning AIP members created a mixture of fresh perspectives and experienced numismatic designers.
Returning artists already understood the unusual demands of coin design.
New artists could challenge established visual habits.
That combination is exactly what the program was designed to encourage.
Coin Design Has Always Changed with Technology
Early Mint engravers cut and punched dies through laborious hand processes.
Later generations used reducing lathes and enlarged sculptural models.
Modern artists can use digital illustration and sculpting tools.
But technology does not eliminate the need for composition, symbolism and judgment.
Artists can revise concepts quickly, test arrangements and work remotely.
Mint sculptors can translate selected designs through digital modeling systems.
Even so, the final test remains physical.
The design has to strike successfully in metal.
A design that looks excellent on a monitor may not work on a press.
Metal must flow into recessed die cavities.
Relief height affects striking pressure.
Die life matters when millions of coins are required.
Numismatic art is inseparable from manufacturing engineering.
Medals can sometimes allow greater relief, larger diameters or fewer statutory restrictions than circulating coins.
AIP artists therefore work across different artistic problems.
A Congressional Gold Medal may permit a richer composition than a circulating quarter.
Both still demand clarity and symbolism.
These medals are among the nation's highest civilian honors.
Congress authorizes them for individuals or groups whose achievements receive national recognition.
Designing one carries a different responsibility from designing a commercial collectible.
The medal becomes part of an official national act of remembrance.
The Mint's modern American Liberty program has deliberately explored changing interpretations of Liberty.
That makes it fertile ground for AIP designers.
Instead of repeating a single established figure, artists can reconsider how an old national concept should look in the twenty-first century.
Modern U.S. coinage now changes designs far more frequently than it did for much of the twentieth century.
State Quarters, America the Beautiful, American Women Quarters, Native American dollars and American Innovation dollars create a steady demand for new artwork.
A larger design pool helps the Mint sustain that pace.
Collectors increasingly recognize artist names.
Mint webpages identify designers and sculptors.
Certificates of Authenticity preserve credits.
Tiny initials on the coin reward collectors who look closely.
The creative process has become more visible.
Coins are often discussed as if “the Mint” designed them.
Institutions do not draw.
People do.
Giving designers and sculptors credit restores the human element to objects manufactured by the millions.
The Program Connects Fine Art and Everyday Money
Most people will never commission a sculpture.
They may never visit a major gallery.
But they handle designed objects every day.
Coins are among the most democratic art forms in that sense.
A carefully designed quarter can circulate through every kind of community.
A statue stays in one location.
A coin travels.
It passes from store to customer, bank to business, collector to collector.
Its audience is decentralized and enormous.
AIP artists therefore contribute to a form of mobile public art.
Most dates in a coin-history calendar look backward.
This one looked forward.
The March 12 announcement identified artists whose work could shape coins and medals that had not yet been produced.
The historical significance lies in the creative pipeline.
Collectors often look backward and assume famous designs were destined to become famous.
They were not.
Every classic coin once existed only as an idea.
A future design admired decades from now may begin with an assignment given to an artist who entered the AIP in 2024.
The path can be long:
- Congress or the Mint defines a program.
- Artists receive design assignments.
- Candidate drawings are created.
- Advisory groups review them.
- A final design is approved.
- Mint artists sculpt and refine it.
- Dies are manufactured.
- Presses strike the coin or medal.
- The public finally sees the finished object.
March 12 belongs near the beginning of that chain.
No famous rarity was struck that day.
No denomination was created.
No hoard was discovered.
Instead, the Mint expanded the group of artists capable of influencing future national coinage.
That makes March 12 a story about how numismatic history is created before a coin exists.
Collectors naturally focus on finished coins.
Grade.
Mintage.
Rarity.
Mintmark.
But every design starts with a creative decision.
The Artistic Infusion Program makes that often-invisible stage visible.
On March 12, 2024, the United States Mint announced 25 new members of its Artistic Infusion Program, joining 13 returning designers in a national pool of artists prepared to help shape future U.S. coins and medals. The announcement did not introduce a single new coin. It revealed something more fundamental: the people and creative system from which tomorrow's coin designs can emerge.
ALSO ON THIS DAY
2004 — Philadelphia Mint Historic Marker / Westward Journey Nickel — A historic marker was unveiled at the Philadelphia Mint as the facility produced the new Westward Journey Nickel Series coins.