TOM HIPSCHEN'S BEP BUILDING ENGRAVING

As mentioned in last week's issue, Tom Hipschen, designer of the Harpers Ferry National Historic Site quarter dollar, formerly worked for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as a picture engraver. Here’s a scan of Tom’s 1987 signed engraving of the BEP building at cherry blossom time, on a souvenir card done for the Bureau’s 125th anniversary.

There are several varieties of this card – this particular one was made for the American Numismatic Association’s annual convention, August 26-30, 1987, in Atlanta. The view is similar to that on an earlier engraving of the BEP building that appeared in the BEP centennial history published by the U. S. Government Printing Office in 1962. To see Tom’s work on U. S. currency, look at the portraits and the building vignettes on the $20, $50 and $100 series 1996-1999 Federal Reserve notes and Lincoln Memorial vignette on back of the $5 note. These vignettes are credited to Hipschen by Mark Tomasko in The Feel of Steel (Newtown, Pa., Bird and Bull Press, 1999), 68. Great to see Tom’s work on both our coins and our currency.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
HARPERS FERRY QUARTER LAUNCHED (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n24a25.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web