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Designer

Patricia Lucas-Morris

The graphite illustrator who draws coins — but never cut a die

Look closely at the reverse of a 2016 Mark Twain dollar, a 2017 Lions Clubs centennial dollar, or a Preamble platinum eagle, and you'll find the same three letters tucked into the design: PLM. They belong to Patricia Lucas-Morris — an artist who has never worked at the Mint, yet whose drawings keep ending up on its coins.

Who she is

Patricia Lucas-Morris is a draftsman first. Her medium is graphite — pencil on paper — and her subjects, by her own account, run to history, animals, period costume, and fantasy. That is an unusual résumé for someone whose work has been struck in silver and platinum.

She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston around 1969 and 1970, though she has said she often skipped the scheduled classes to spend her time in the museum's galleries instead. The career that followed wandered through several worlds of drawing at once. She worked as a scrimshander — an artist who engraves images into bone or ivory, a craft born on whaling ships. She illustrated educational children's books. And she spent years as a technical illustrator at Walter Dorwin Teague Associates, the famous industrial-design firm, working exclusively on Boeing aircraft projects.

Coins came later, and through a side door. She served as a senior illustrator for the Medallic Art Company and for Northwest Territorial Mint — private mints that strike medals and tokens — which put her squarely in the world of relief art and small-format design. Today she works on commission from her home in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Her role at the Mint

Here is the thing that trips up most newcomers: Lucas-Morris is a designer, not an engraver. She belongs to the U.S. Mint's Artistic Infusion Program — the AIP — a roster of outside artists, created in 2003, who submit drawings for coin and medal programs without ever joining the Mint's staff.

The split matters, and the coins themselves record it. A modern U.S. coin usually carries two sets of initials. The first belongs to the designer, who draws the image. The second belongs to the sculptor-engraver, a Mint employee who translates that flat drawing into the three-dimensional relief — the raised and lowered surface — that a die can actually strike. On the Preamble platinum eagles, for instance, you'll find "PLM" for Lucas-Morris beside "DE" for sculptor-engraver Don Everhart, who modeled her eagle into metal.

So when you read that Lucas-Morris "designed" a coin, picture the drawing, not the die. Her eye is for the composition — what the loon is doing on the Voyageurs quarter, how the eagle's wings are caught mid-stroke, which characters leap from Mark Twain's pages. The Mint's sculptors then give that vision depth. It's a collaboration, and on her best coins it's a seamless one.

Key facts

Active as a coin designer
2010s–present (U.S. Mint AIP)
Role
Designer (Artistic Infusion Program) — not a Mint engraver
Nationality
American
Based in
Gig Harbor, Washington
Training
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (c. 1969–1970)
Primary medium
Graphite (pencil drawing)
Earlier career
Scrimshander; children's-book illustrator; technical illustrator at Walter Dorwin Teague Associates (Boeing)
Initials on coins
PLM

The coins she drew

  1. 2016Mark Twain silver dollar — reverse

    Characters from Twain's books — the Connecticut Yankee's knight, the Calaveras jumping frog, Jim and Huck. Sculpted by Renata Gordon.

  2. 2017Lions Clubs International Centennial silver dollar — reverse

    A male and female lion with a cub, set over a globe. Sculpted by Don Everhart.

  3. 2018Voyageurs National Park quarter — reverse

    A common loon before a rock cliff, in Minnesota's America the Beautiful entry. Sculpted by Joseph Menna.

  4. 2018–2020Preamble to the Declaration of Independence platinum eagle — common reverse

    An eagle in flight, wings drawn back, an olive branch in its talons. The same reverse ran across all three coins. Engraved by Don Everhart.

  5. 2019American Legion 100th Anniversary silver dollar — reverse

    Crossed U.S. and American Legion flags under a fleur-de-lis — a nod to the Legion's 1919 founding in Paris. Sculpted by Michael Gaudioso.

Questions collectors ask

Did Patricia Lucas-Morris work for the U.S. Mint?

Not as an employee. She is an outside artist in the Mint's Artistic Infusion Program (AIP), a roster of designers who submit drawings for coin programs. The Mint's own sculptor-engravers then model those designs into the relief that gets struck. On the coins, her initials 'PLM' appear next to the sculptor's.

What does 'PLM' mean on a coin?

Those are Patricia Lucas-Morris's designer initials. U.S. coins typically carry two sets of initials — one for the artist who drew the design and one for the sculptor-engraver who turned the drawing into a struck coin. 'PLM' marks the designs that came from her hand.

Which Mark Twain coin did she design?

She designed the reverse — the tails side — of the 2016 Mark Twain commemorative silver dollar, the side crowded with his characters: the knight from 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,' the Calaveras jumping frog, and Jim and Huck from 'Huckleberry Finn.' Mint sculptor-engraver Renata Gordon modeled it.

Why does the same eagle appear on three different platinum eagles?

The Mint's 2018–2020 Preamble platinum series used one common reverse across all three coins — Lucas-Morris's eagle in flight with an olive branch. Only the obverse changed each year, illustrating life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in turn.

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