If you could, would you sculpt using clay or a computer? United States Mint artists at Philadelphia have their choice, with some switching between the two mediums.

It's fascinating to watch gifted artists breathe life into models. The folks at the Philadelphia Mint have been doing a lot of that lately, more than any other year, with 83 designs already sculpted for coins and medals released in 2013.

It was a joy visiting with U.S. Mint sculptor-engravers Don Everhart, Michael Gaudioso, Joe Menna and Phebe Hemphill. They're among the group of artists who take sketches and shape them into the models that are used to produce master hubs, master dies and working dies for striking coinage and medals.

In traditional sculpturing, an artist with special tools captures the essence of a sketch in clay.

We snuck behind Michael Gaudioso as he was using clay on a Ren basin to bring his Code Talker Congressional Gold Medal design to life. Ren basins are circular, have depth and act as a working foundation or template for sculpting.

Digital sculpting requires the same mental artistry as the traditional method, but models take shape within computer software instead of on clay.

Joe Menna was the first full-time digitally skilled artist hired by the U.S. Mint, and was instrumental in making the Mint a world leader in digital coin design and development.

Joe's mastery over digital sculpturing is something to behold. We were a bit shocked to watch Joe sculpt in Adobe Photoshop® since we rely on this same software for simple coin effects within articles. Our use is at a kindergarten level compared to Menna's seasoned approach. With stylus in hand, he demonstrated layering and showed how quick changes can be made to a digital model. While working, Joe discussed the team culture at the Mint, talking about designer initials on coins and how they don't show the many hands needed to produce coinage.

To read the complete article, see:US Mint Artists at Philadelphia Sculpt Digitally and in Clay(www.coinnews.net/2013/09/06/us-mint-artists-at-philadelphia-sculpt-digitally-and-in-clay/)