Q. David Bowers
"Our experience is if one can pare those elements down, one gets the increased impact at the small scale, and our suggestion is, if one could have that beautiful Olympic symbol, which is world renowned and is one of the great graphic logos, combined with the torch, which is an American symbol of freedom, that one would not have to get into all the literalness of our two runners, which brings ethnic questions into play. Whatever you do to define those two runners, you will leave out a lot of our American athletes. I feel that you are buying more trouble than you need. Why shouldn't the design be simplified?..."
On May 10, 1983, the Commission reviewed the modified designs. The minutes of the meeting noted the following: "Mrs. [Sue] Kohler introduced Francis Frere from the Mint to show plaster models for these revised coin designs. The obverse of the ten dollar gold coin had been modified, with the runners in a slightly different position and a clear separation between them and the date below. The design was considered greatly improved, but Mr. [John S.] Chase recalled that he had recommended using more abstract facial features so that no one race would be suggested, and this had not been done. Disappointment was expressed that Mr. Chase's recommendation had not been followed in the design for the obverse, and it was requested that his comments be taken into consideration. The reverse of the medal [sic], only slightly modified, showed an eagle, very much like that on the Great Seal; it was unanimously approved."
John Mercanti Discusses the Coin An article in Coin World included an interview with John Mercanti, who had been called upon to redesign the obverse concept submitted by Jim Peed: ("Mercanti Proud of Work on Olympic Eagle," by Jay Guren. July 25, 1984, p.90.) "'Once I had time to work on it I did the best design that I could,' he said. The eagle on the reverse proved a separate challenge for the sculptor, who had heard indirectly that the secretary of the Treasury favored a heraldic eagle similar to the Great Seal design, but with the shield removed. 'That posed a design problem, because it's hard to do something like that with the bird in that position. So what I had to do was more or less clothe the bird in a cloak of feathers,' Mercanti explained. 'I really didn't do any preliminary drawings. I dug right into the clay and started modeling. That's the first time in my career I did that. I really didn't know how it was going to work. I could certainly have put an interpretation down on paper. But I wanted to see exactly what I would get, so I dug right into the clay.'
"Mercanti considered it a special privilege to not only design the coin, but also to cut the punches for the 'W' mintmark, signifying that the coins had been struck at West Point. This was the first instance, of course, in which the 'W' mintmark was used. 'That's what's unique about working in a place like this [the U.S. Mint] as opposed to a private mint. In a private mint you have designers, you have sculptors, you have engravers. In this organization you're responsible for a job, and when you finish, you've taken it through every stage. That's a very satisfying thing, a great sense of accomplishment, when you look at something and you know that nobody worked on it except you. In private industry you just don't get something like that.' Mercanti expects the Olympic gold eagle will become numismatically important, 'down the pike.' He admitted, however, he does not own one because of its cost.
John Mercanti Discusses the Coin
An article in Coin World included an interview with John Mercanti, who had been called upon to redesign the obverse concept submitted by Jim Peed: (Mercanti Proud of Work on Olympic Eagle," by Jay Guren. July 25, 1984, p.90.) "'Once I had time to work on it I did the best design that I could,' he said. The eagle on the reverse proved a separate challenge for the sculptor, who had heard indirectly that the secretary of the Treasury favored a heraldic eagle similar to the Great Seal design, but with the shield removed. 'That posed a design problem, because it's hard to do something like that with the bird in that position. So what I had to do was more or less clothe the bird in a cloak of feathers,' Mercanti explained. 'I really didn't do any preliminary drawings. I dug right into the clay and started modeling. That's the first time in my career I did that. I really didn't know how it was going to work. I could certainly have put an interpretation down on paper. But I wanted to see exactly what I would get, so I dug right into the clay.'
"Mercanti considered it a special privilege to not only design the coin, but also to cut the punches for the 'W' mintmark, signifying that the coins had been struck at West Point. This was the first instance, of course, in which the 'W' mintmark was used. 'That's what's unique about working in a place like this [the U.S. Mint] as opposed to a private mint. In a private mint you have designers, you have sculptors, you have engravers. In this organization you're responsible for a job, and when you finish, you've taken it through every stage. That's a very satisfying thing, a great sense of accomplishment, when you look at something and you know that nobody worked on it except you. In private industry you just don't get something like that.' Mercanti expects the Olympic gold eagle will become numismatic ally important, 'down the pike.' He admitted, however, he does not own one because of its cost.
"'What will you show your grandchildren?' Coin World asked. The sculptor laughed and answered: 'A picture!' He noted he also had the opportunity to work on the reverse of the 1983 Olympic dollar with Chief Engraver Elizabeth Jones, whom he described as 'very receptive to change, to new ideas. She brought the department into the 20th century,' he said. 'We're self-sufficient now. We have photographic facilities and things like that, which we've never had before, so we're really operating at a 20th-century level.'
"Discussing the efforts involved in creating a coin or medal design, the sculptor said he starts by working up preliminary sketches to develop ideas. When a design problem arises, he rough sketches it again, working over his design, sketching it out and refining it. 'It's a correcting and refining type of thing, and that's exactly what we have to do,' he said. Questioned about the matter of balancing the metal flow on the obverse and reverse, Mercanti said that this is a problem medalists and medallic artists in private industry are not likely to appreciate. 'We work very closely with the engineers. We don't want the relief too high, we don't want it too low. There are so many aspects we have to take into consideration. It's not just doing a pretty coin,' he said.
"The sculptor likened his job to that of a magician, taking a three-dimensional subject and flattening it out on a two-dimensional surface. 'A lot of times in industry they say, 'There's a competition, design a pretty medal.' Well, that's nice, because they can strike that medal five, six or seven times; but you can't do that here. We're under restrictions to strike once or maybe twice. We're not engineers, but we have to work closely with these engineers. If we don't, they're only going to come back and say, 'This doesn't work, let's make it work. 'It's harder to make something work after you've made a model. Engineers are very straight-thinking. They think positive, negative. They like to break everything down into formulas, and we can't always do that with an aesthetic thing. We have to make our art work for them.'
"Mercanti cited as an example the torch on the obverse of the Olympic gold eagle, which is situated between two letters. 'When I was drawing it up, one of the engineers came in and said, 'Now is that going to be too high? If it's too high, maybe it won't come up.' The sculptor made a note of this observation right on his drawing and was guided by it when completing his model, keeping the relief on the torch the same height as the letters. This was just one example of the patient planning and artistic skill involved. The creation of the Olympic gold eagle was an assignment of which the artist can feel justifiably proud."