Quality 8-inch by 10-inch lithographic prints of artwork commissioned from four renowned artists to celebrate American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Victory statue executed a century ago will be available free for autographing while supplies last in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money Aug. 8 to 11 in Pittsburgh.

Commissioned by numismatist Kevin Lipton from Kevin Lipton Rare Coins in Beverly Hills, California, are artist Emily Damstra, Texas artist Miley Frost, Michael Gaudioso, a medallic artist for 13 years on the Mint’s engraving staff, and retired Mint Chief Engraver John M. Mercanti. 

The prints will be hand-signed and numbered by the respective artists. The Victory statue will be on display and the prints available for distribution at Lipton’s bourse table #606. Lipton was the top bidder for the reduction of the Victory statue offered at a Christie’s auction earlier this year. The prints are courtesy of Lipton and Rare Collectibles TV.   

Lipton said there will be 500 prints of each of the four commissioned designs. Lipton said he advised the artists to use the imagery of the Victory statue to render their interpretive works.

Victory statue

The statue Lipton will have on display is one of only three privately owned reductions of Saint-Gaudens’ famous masterpiece statue that has been in New York’s Central Park area since 1903.

The reductions, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, are “adapted from the full-size figure of Victory on Saint-Gaudens’s equestrian monument to the Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman (1892–1903; Grand Army Plaza, Manhattan), [where] this winged allegorical figure is depicted as a triumphant guiding force. ...”

Emily Damstra

Damstra has designed coins and medals for both the Royal Canadian Mint and the United States Mint. She became a member of the U.S. Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program in 2014.

Among her AIP works are 13 designs for U.S. coins including the Reverse of 2021 introduced in June 2021 for the silver American Eagle. Damstra’s design was sculpted by Gaudioso.

Miley Frost

Known in 1986 as Miley Busiek, Frost contributed the Family of Eagles reverse for the gold American Eagles from October 1986 through mid-June 2021.

Michael Gaudioso

Gaudioso joined the U.S. Mint’s engraving staff in 2009 as a medallic artist, three years after the Mint switched to digital sculpting, eliminating the need for plaster models in the development of coinage dies. Gaudioso retired from the Mint in the fall of 2020.  

John Mercanti

Mercanti produced more coin and medal designs during his tenure as a U.S. Mint sculptor-engraver than any other employee in the Mint’s history. Mercanti joined the engraving staff in 1974, was elevated to chief engraver in 2009 by then U.S. Mint Director Edmund C. Moy, and retired from the Mint the following year.

Connect with Coin World:  
Sign up for our free eNewsletter
Access our Dealer Directory  
Like us on Facebook  
Follow us on Twitter