Icons of Inspiration: Remembering Joel Iskowitz

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On April 23, the numismatic and art communities lost a living legend, and the United States lost a national treasure with the passing of celebrated coin designer and artist Joel Iskowitz at age 79. 

Iskowitz’s work is a bridge to history and the most famous coin designers of the past, with classic, timeless designs that appeal to humanity’s better angels. His legacy will continue not just through his numerous coins and medals but also through the work of the many artists he mentored and supported, such as Jamie Franki, Elana Hagler, Chiara Principe, and many other award-winning coin designers.

“Goodwill Ambassadors”

Iskowitz was a nationally and internationally renowned and award-winning illustrator, painter, and coin, medal, and stamp designer with a deep sense of humanity, patriotism, and history. He viewed his coin designs above all as “goodwill ambassadors” for the world, intended to improve mutual understanding and respect between countries, peoples, and cultures.

Following his passing, fellow artists paid tribute to the master coin designer. Franki, designer of the current portrait of President Thomas Jefferson that has appeared on every nickel since 2006, said, “Joel was an Artist’s Artist and a Gentleman’s Gentleman. He took me under his Eagle wings and inspired me to soar. I love him like my next breath.”

Iskowitz was one of the most prolific coin designers in modern history with a remarkable body of work that included thousands of coins, medals, and stamps for countries around the world. He crafted 54 designs for the U.S. Mint as a member of the Artistic Infusion Program, including circulating, commemorative, and bullion coins as well as Congressional Gold Medals. Some of his coins, like his 2009 Lincoln bicentennial cent design and those for presidential dollars and the statehood and national parks quarters, were struck in the hundreds of millions.

Artistic Career

He also created many paintings for the U.S. Air Force Art Program and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Art Program and many other major commissions. In 2020 the Atlantic Gallery in New York City displayed a solo exhibit of Iskowitz’s paintings and coin designs called “Icons of Inspiration,” which is also the name of a 10-coin series he created for APMEX, issued for Niue, from 2021 to 2024. The exhibit can be viewed online at the Atlantic Gallery’s website. His art is on permanent display at museums around the world, including at the 9/11 memorial and in Normandy, France. It’s even been flown into space! 

For decades he also did extensive work for private and world mints such as the Commonwealth Mint, SD Bullion, and the East India Company. He designed countless pieces for countries of the British Commonwealth, especially Tristan da Cunha, and also for the Royal Mint.

Approach to Art

Iskowitz’s artistic style was rooted in a deep respect for the great masters from past eras, especially the Renaissance. He also admired past numismatic legends, especially Adolph Weinman, James Earle Fraser, Victor David Brenner, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. He was one of a relatively small number of modern American coin designers whose work has been compared favorably to them. 

His designs for the American Platinum Eagle series—and other coins in which he depicted his own versions of Lady Liberty or Columbia—evoke the icons of past American and world coinage. He also created his own goddesses, like Nomisma (Greek for money), on his 2025 and 2024 ANA World’s Fair of Money show medals. 

Iskowitz’s designs have a distinctly classic style to them, and his work is widely admired for its timeless quality. He liked to say in interviews that “classic art is not confined to the past” and that “classic is not an era”.

The other essential aspect to his art is that it is narrative, or art that tells a story. His works are, of course, widely admired for their stunning beauty, but they also resonate deeply with those who admire them. They accomplish that because of their remarkable accuracy and authenticity, and because of the effort Iskowitz put into researching topics, which usually included visiting locations.

He also saw his art as being “in the service of the collective human story.” A strong believer in international cooperation, he designed hundreds of different coins and medals for mints around the world. He traveled to China in 2019, where he was invited to train Chinese coin designers, and in 2013 he designed and sculpted a medal for the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China.

Numismatic Motifs

There is a remarkable tapestry that dazzles the eye in every one of Iskowitz’s medallic masterpieces and in his paintings. But the principal motifs in his work are portraits of the key shapers of history and allegorical images of numismatic icons.  

First, there are his portraits of historic figures like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth II, and many others. Each evokes the subject’s spirit in a way few artists can. Second, there are, as mentioned earlier, his many depictions of the ideal of Liberty personified as a beautiful and historically resonant goddess and his depictions of Britannia and other goddesses.

In 2015 Iskowitz became the first and only American artist to create a royal effigy of the late Queen Elizabeth II for Tristan da Cunha, which was used primarily on silver commemorative crowns. The design shows a mature queen facing right, wearing her diadem, and it is still in use. He was also the only American to portray the late Queen, her mother (the Queen Mother), and Prince William on Buckingham Palace-approved coinage. Iskowitz also broke numismatic ground in 2015 when he became the first modern artist to design a coin that paired Lady Liberty with Britannia, which appears on coins issued that year and in 2016.  

Additionally, his portrait of President James Madison, which first appeared on a 2007 Presidential dollar, will reappear this summer on the obverse of the 2026 Constitution quarter for the semiquincentennial. 

These are just highlights of a remarkable career producing truly meaningful art that can be found in your pocket, your coin collection, and museums, all in the service of humanity and a better world.