U.S. MINT ARTISTS PROFILED

 
Eric David Custer at his workstation

The U.S. Mint produces coins in four cities: Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and West Point, New York. But the Philly location — located just a few blocks north of Independence Hall — is the Mint's hub for engraving, and employs a team of medallic artists who sculpt all the new designs for circulating coins, Congressional medals, and collectible pieces.

Yes, sculpts. The images in coins are three-dimensional and extremely detailed despite being only slightly raised.

"There's a great challenge in making something in relief like this," said Phebe Hemphill, a medallic artist who's worked at the Mint since 2006. "It's kind of a weird, fascinating challenge to fit everything into that very, very low space we're allowed to sculpt."

Hemphill, a Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumnus originally from West Chester, got some early experience working at the Franklin Mint, a private Delaware County-based company that produces coins and other collectibles. Her design and sculpting credits over her two decades at the U.S. Mint number in the dozens, from a Congressional Gold Medal presented to Tuskegee Airmen to a quarter depicting the Cuban American singer Celia Cruz.

The coin sculpting process requires many "small technical nuances" to create "the illusion of depth," said Eric David Custer, another medallic artist at the Mint. While medals allow for a bit more "freedom" because they're larger, he said, coins like quarters are trickier. The sculpted image ends up being about as thick as "two or three human hairs" stacked on top of one another.

Custer, who grew up in Independence Township in western Pennsylvania, did some of his early engraving work at Wendell August Forge, a Pennsylvania-based artisan metalware company. An alumnus of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh with a degree in industrial design, he joined the Mint in 2008 as a product designer and became a medallic artist in 2021.

Custer and Hemphill are part of a small team of medallic artists that span a range of backgrounds and skillsets. One previously designed dinnerware and pottery, while another founded a community sculpture studio.

"Everyone that's arrived here has come from different avenues in art, sculpture, and manufacturing," said Custer.

Since the first U.S. Mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792, the city has been the country's center for coin engraving, according to spokesperson Tim Grant. The Mint's headquarters moved to Washington, D.C., in the 1870s, but its engraving operation remained in Philly.

To read the complete article, see:
Creating art for US coins is tricky. These Pa. artists have made a career of it. (https://www.dailycourier.com/news/creating-art-for-us-coins-is-tricky-these-pa-artists-have-made-a-career-of/article_9a5feae8-8f06-48dd-90e9-fcb001612cc7.html)

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