Elizabeth Jones

Elizabeth Jones did not set out to make coins. She was born in Montclair, New Jersey, on May 31, 1935, took a degree from Vassar College in 1957, and trained as a painter. The turn came at twenty-five, in Italy, when she met the sculptor Renato Signorini — the man who had designed the medal for the 1960 Rome Olympics. "He's the one who's responsible for my becoming a medalist," she later said. "I had never even thought of medals until I was 25 years old."

She stayed. Jones opened her own studio in Rome around 1964 and worked there for the better part of two decades as a medallic sculptor — an artist who carves portraits and scenes meant to live at the scale of a coin or medal, in low relief (the raised height of the design above the flat field). By the early 1970s she was regarded as one of the leading medalists in the world, with commissions from the Franklin Mint, the Medallic Art Company, and others.

Then, in 1981, President Ronald Reagan named her Chief Sculptor-Engraver of the United States. The Senate confirmed her that September, and she was sworn in that October. She succeeded Frank Gasparro, who had held the job for sixteen years — and she was the first woman ever to hold it. She served for a decade, resigning in 1991. The post then sat empty for fifteen years, until John Mercanti was appointed in 2006.

Jones arrived at a strange moment for American coinage. The United States had not struck a commemorative coin since 1954, and it had not issued a circulating gold coin since 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt pulled gold out of everyday money. For nearly fifty years, American gold was a thing of the past. Jones helped end that.

Her first commemorative — the 1982 George Washington half dollar, marking 250 years since his birth — broke the drought. It was the first modern U.S. commemorative coin, and the first 90% silver coin the Mint had struck since 1964. She designed both sides: Washington on horseback on the obverse (the heads side), and his Mount Vernon home with an eagle on the reverse (the tails side). It sold over seven million pieces and proved Americans still wanted commemoratives.

The gold came back through her hand too. Her best-known design is the 1986 Statue of Liberty $5 gold piece, made for the statue's centennial. Instead of the whole figure, Jones pushed in close — a dramatic upward view of Liberty's face and crown, her rays running off the edge of the coin. Both the uncirculated and proof versions were judged flawless and graded 70, a perfect score. Her instinct was the same one a good portrait painter has: don't show everything; show the part that carries the feeling.

That close, sculptural eye runs through her work. The 1983 Los Angeles Olympics dollar carries a discus thrower drawn from Myron's ancient Greek statue. The 1988 Seoul Olympics $5 gold opens with the head of Nike, the goddess of victory, crowned in olive leaves. Her last U.S. coin, the 2001 Capitol Visitor Center $5 gold, set a single Corinthian column against the Capitol as it stood in 1800 — architecture rendered like sculpture.