Making Money

SCHOLASTIC ART: What is your job?

Joe Menna: I am a medallic sculptor at the United States Mint. I design and sculpt coins, like pennies, dimes, and quarters. Every project I work on is ordered by Congress and signed into law by the president. Ultimately, the president is my boss, which is pretty cool!

SA: How do you sculpt a coin?

JM: It starts with a friendly competition. The other artists at the U.S. Mint and I each create 2-D computer drawings of our designs for a new coin. Then several committees review our drawings. If mine is selected, I sculpt a digital 3-D model of my design. That model is used to program the machines that make the actual coins.

SA: What is your training?

JM: I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in traditional sculpture. I studied at an academy in Russia that emphasized monumental and decorative arts. The kind of sculpture we do at the U.S. Mint is low relief, which I learned by studying ancient Egyptian sculpture.

SA: What made you decide to begin sculpting digitally?

JM: When I was younger, I didn’t want anything to do with digital sculpting technology. I saw it as a threat to the fine-art world. But soon I realized that someone like Leonardo da Vinci, who spent his life celebrating the marriage of art and science, likely would have embraced digital technology. Digital sculpting is the ultimate realization of Renaissance ideals of science in the service of art!

SA: What is the best part of your job?

JM: One of the first coins I worked on was the George Washington dollar. It was really exciting because it was the beginning of the presidential dollar program. My design was unveiled at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. So within my first six months at the Mint, my drawings were on display with some of the greatest American masterpieces in art history! I am part of a long tradition of creating American iconography. It’s a great responsibility and a tremendous honor to work for the U.S. Mint.