Paul Vincze, Coin Designer
Ice Torch
many fine coin designs for the Royal Mint. You will, I am sure,
recognise several of the ones illustrated in this topic:
oly
A great deal of the coin design that you've shown for both Hibbit and
Vincze is simply derivative from the Irish coinage of 1928 to 1967.
State arms or bust of State leader on one side, a strong, simple
animal design on the other. I think it was Percy Metcalf who did it
first.
In America, I think most people remember Paul Vincze for his medallic
sculpture related to Shakespeare.
oly
Ice Torch
Percy Metcalf was an English designer, and I regard his Irish barnyard
set as superb, and the mother of all modern thematic circulation sets.
Certainly he will have influenced and inspired future designers, and
rightly so. However, no artist can be entirely original and stands, as
it were, on the shoulders of giants. Animal designs were common on the
coins on the ancients, and in fact the designers who entered the
competition to design the Irish Free State coins were shown examples
of ancient Greek coinage depicting animals for inspiration. So you
could say Mr Metcalf was not entirely original, but then, who is?
Some of Metcalf's Irish designs are more stylised than other: the hen
and chicks on the penny look like simplistic children's toys compared
to the more realistic pig and piglets on the halfpenny. The wildlife
designs of the barnyard pieces may have set the template for future
designs, but that is no reason to criticise Hibbit, Vincze, or anyone
else. Their designs are both beautiful and original in themselves,
because though the general subject matter may be familiar, they bring
their own very original style of art to the subject, producing
detailed and often very lifelike designs, which I'm sure will be
regarded as classics in years to come.
I actually wrote and illustrated a topic on the forum, entitled "The
Origins of Thematics", which you can see here:
http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,7097.0.html
It shows thematic coin designs from the 1600s onwards. You may argue
from that Metcalf himself was unoriginal, but there is only a limited
amount of subjects to choose among for coins, and either you follow
the traditions and/or try to improve on them, or else we just make do
with blank tokens. If you think Metcalf and Hibbit unoriginal, who
would you suggest as innovators?
As for Vincze's medallic work, well, many coin designers work in
various media: Stuart Devlin is a silversmith, and the late Avril
Vaughan created jewellery. The boards on our World of Coins are
usually split between coins, medals, tokens, and the rest, and I am
not acquainted with Mr Vincze's medallic work, but if you would like
to join our forum so that you can add images of his medals to my
topic, you would be very welcome.
Ice Torch.
Ice Torch
would you suggest as innovators?
Correction, I meant VINZCE and Hibbit.
Ice Torch.
Ice Torch
Correction to correction, I meant VINCZE! (Get it right, Ice Torch!)
Ice Torch.
oly
>
> - Show quoted text -
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ecclesiastes Chapter 1, Verse 9.
oly
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P.S. About 1972, P. Vincze did a set of Zodiac medals for the old
Franklin Mint that were very popular in the U.S.A. at that time.
Chas Edwards
ANA convention.
Beanie
"Chas Edwards" <chas...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:9b1b9326-5d6d-4ab2...@p12g2000vbo.googlegroups.com...
>I had the pleasure of a conversation with him twenty+ years ago at an
> ANA convention.
One must wonder if he was pleasured by that conversation also?
Ice Torch
The Franklin Mint did some fine pieces. The sets of coins I have of
theirs from the 1970s were perfectly packaged, and the coins are still
pristine. As a non-religious bod, I shall have to look up your
reference.
Ice Torch
> I had the pleasure of a conversation with him twenty+ years ago at an
> ANA convention.
I too have been lucky enough to speak to English designers Philip
Nathan and Avril Vaughan in the past, and have corresponded by email
with a few others. They are always pleased when somebody takes an
interest in their work, which is also their passion. And of course, I
learnt a fair bit that I didn't know from those conversations.
Jud
> I too have been lucky enough to speak to English designers Philip
> Nathan and Avril Vaughan in the past, and have corresponded by email
> with a few others. They are always pleased when somebody takes an
> interest in their work, which is also their passion. And of course, I
> learnt a fair bit that I didn't know from those conversations.
The only coin designer I have ever talked with is RCC's own Daniel
Carr. Of course, I would also have to include my buddy Ron Landis,
although none of his designs were ever accepted, despite being
superior to the ones that were.
IMHO
oly
Back in early 1992 (I think) I went to a seminar on coins that was
held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
They took us up to Philadelphia to tour the cash handling operation at
the Phillie FRB and then we went over to the U.S. Mint. They wouldn't
take us to see coin production (they said it was too noisy, OSHA
problems) but they did take us up to the engravers' workrooms.
The then Chief Engraver, Elizabeth Jones, gave a welcome speech and
showed us some of her work (I distinctly remember that she had a
plaster from the SOL $5 gold obverse). Mr. S.J. Winter talked to the
whole group too, mainly about the sculpting, galvanos, master die
cutting and showed us a Janvier-style machine that was in the process
of making a reduction.
Then we were allowed to look at what the staff members were doing. I
was very fortunate to talk for fifteen or twenty minute with Mr. Edgar
Z. Steever. Mr. Steever was probably well past retirement age, but he
onviously loved his work. That day, he was working on the reverse of
the official Mint medal for Mr. Nicholas J. Brady, who was Bush #41's
Secretary of the Treasury. The main reverse device was a U.S.
Treasury "official" Flag, and Mr. Steever showed me two or three
earlier bronze medals with large flags on them, which he had placed
out on his worktable and that he was using as inspiration and guides.
He was very very talented. My one big brush with real Mint engravers.
I think the cost of the seminar four or five days was a whopping $245,
plus hotels and gasoline for a 1900 mile round-trip. I had lunch with
Mrs. Stefanelli at the Smithsonian Castle during this week too; be
assured that I minded my table manners!
oly