Local artist’s coin he designed for U.S. Mint wins top honors internationally – San Diego Union-Tribune

Local artist’s coin he designed for U.S. Mint wins top honors internationally  San Diego Union-Tribune

San Marcos artist Chris Polentz named Coin of the Year champion for his American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin A San Marcos-based artist and teacher who designs coins for the U.S. Mint took top honors at the recent American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money, which drew hundreds of submissions from around the world. Chris Polentz was named a Coin of the Year champion for his American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin, which was about a year and a half in the making and was minted last year. The coin, which depicts a sunflower on the front and swirling eagle on back, initially was picked as one of the top 100 coins out of 600 submissions from dozens of mints, banks and collectors around the world.

His coin was top 10 in the Best of Gold category and then was a runner-up for top gold coin. A panel of more than 100 judges voted for Polentz’s design as the winner in the gold coin category. Gold coins are often the best of the best that a mint puts out because of its precious metal content, which makes it an especially challenging category. Polentz has worked on 20 coin design projects with the U.S. Mint over the past two and a half years since he joined a team of more than