The Best Kind of Details

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If your brain works like mine, you looked at the featured image above and thought, “What an excellent photo of a 1909 Indian Head $5 gold piece!” If this thought crossed your mind, then perhaps you’ll be pleasantly astounded, as I was, to learn that it is not a photo at all, but an extremely realistic illustration done in colored pencil. But who could draw a coin so spectacularly? 

Allow me to introduce Robert Julian, your new favorite artist.

Following a fruitful career as a draftsman, technical illustrator, mechanical designer, engineer, and entrepreneur, Julian turned to numismatic artwork during his retirement in the summer of 2022. His work has since been featured in private collections and institutional settings, and he’s completed more than 35 commissioned numismatic studies. 

“What started as individual drawings and commissions for collectors quickly grew into something more comprehensive,” Julian recalls. “As I continued working, I found myself increasingly drawn to the idea of creating a complete, self‑contained artifact—one that unifies research, illustration, design, and technical writing into a single, coherent work.”

Julian calls these coherent works “codices,” and they have become his sole focus and specialty. The codex format is designed for collectors and curators who value long‑form, archival documentation. “His background in drafting, architectural design, and engineering is evident in every plate,” states a recent review of his work. “Edges are crisp, proportions exact, and the geometry of each coin is treated with the seriousness of a technical blueprint. But unlike sterile technical drawings, Julian’s pieces breathe; they carry atmosphere, weight, and a sense of the coin’s journey through history.”

Julian’s upcoming Alpha Suite, three volumes dedicated to America’s rarest coins, is set to be published in 2027. A bounty of beauty, the comprehensive books will include many of his precisely rendered illustrations in a culmination of his artistic and scholarly efforts to date.

I spoke with Julian about his artistry, discipline, and upcoming volume.

Olivia McCommons: How does your technical background influence your art?

Robert Julian: I began my career at Molex in 1978 as a draftsman, though my responsibilities quickly expanded far beyond that title. I became one of the original team members instrumental in bringing the membrane switch from early development into commercial production, contributing to every stage of the product’s engineering, artwork, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing. After Molex, I spent five years at Great Lakes Environmental as the chief mechanical designer, responsible for all of the company’s standard wastewater‑treatment products while also supporting production, documentation, and customer implementation. I later founded Hydro‑Flo Technologies with little more than $1,000 and sweat equity, serving as both owner and lead designer while handling every aspect of the business—from engineering and fabrication to technical illustration, manuals, and master artwork.

Across all three companies, my formal titles ranged from draftsman to designer to engineer to president and owner, but the work itself consistently spanned the entire lifecycle of each product. This included not only engineering and fabrication but also the creation of detailed technical documentation—engineering submittals, installation/operation manuals, maintenance guides, and sales literature. That discipline of clear, structured communication ultimately became the foundation for the museum‑grade writing and documentation I use today in my codex work.

OM: When did you start drawing coins and what inspired you to do so?

RJ: I began drawing coins seriously after retirement, though the impulse goes back much further. My uncle left me a 1907 Saint‑Gaudens high-relief double eagle (gold $20), and that coin planted the seed. Years later, I tested myself by drawing a Lincoln cent—almost as a personal challenge to see whether I could honor the object with the level of respect it deserved. That drawing changed everything. It revealed a path where art, history, and engineering could coexist.

OM: How do you manage to capture such a high degree of realism in your illustrations?

RJ: Realism, for me, comes from discipline rather than style. I work from multiple reference coins whenever possible, studying how light interacts with metal, how relief breaks, and how age alters a surface. I use fine‑art oil and wax‑based colored pencils rather than graphite, which allows me to build depth and metallic nuance slowly, layer by layer. The goal is not to copy a coin but to reveal the truth of it—its structure, its history, and its presence.

OM: In addition to your eagerly awaited book, where can people view your work?

RJ: My work appears in private collections, curated displays, and occasional public exhibitions at major numismatic events. Each commission includes not only the codex itself but also a suite of original artwork created specifically for the owner of the coin. This includes the original hand‑drawn obverse and reverse illustrations, professionally matted and framed, along with a set of 13×19 museum‑grade prints produced on Canson Infinity Etching 100-percent cotton rag paper with hand‑deckled edges. These pigment‑based prints are archival and designed for long‑term display. For many collectors, these artworks become the accessible embodiment of an inaccessible treasure—the way they actually live with a coin that otherwise spends its life secured in a vault. Selected works and manuscript excerpts can also be viewed on my website.

OM: How do you choose which coin to draw next? What is your creative process?

RJ: The coin chooses me more often than the other way around. I’m drawn to pieces with historical weight—coins that represent turning points, mysteries, or moments of national identity. My process begins with research: archival documents, die studies, provenance trails, and physical examination. Only after I understand the coin’s story do I begin the drawing. The illustration is just one part of a larger manuscript architecture that includes layout, captioning, and the physical codex itself.

OM: What is the most challenging aspect of creating your illustrations? And the most rewarding?

RJ: The most challenging aspect is maintaining absolute consistency across every stage of creation—research, illustration, layout, and binding. Each plate must meet museum‑grade standards, and I hold myself to a level of precision that can be exhausting. The most rewarding moment comes when the artifact is complete and I can step back and see it as a permanent record—something that will outlast me and, hopefully, serve future collectors and historians.

OM: How do your creative endeavors tie in with your other hobbies?

RJ: My primary collecting and research focus has always been the Lincoln cent. Beyond numismatics, I’m drawn to objects that carry history—tools, mechanical artifacts, and early industrial design. I also have a background in specialty vehicle fabrication and spent several years partnering in an auto body shop, where my brother and I built the SN65 Mustang Project, a fully custom unibody build involving extensive fabrication and engineering. Much of my free time is devoted to manuscript craft, bookbinding, and studying historical methods of preservation.

OM: What’s something you wish more people knew about your artwork?

RJ: Many people don’t realize that my work extends far beyond illustration. Each project is built as a codex—a hand‑crafted, museum‑grade manuscript that documents a single rare coin with the same seriousness applied to institutional archives. A codex is not a “book” in the casual sense; it is an architectural object. Every page is designed, weighted, and sequenced to create a visual and scholarly narrative. It integrates research, forensic study, high‑resolution plates, interpretive drawings, and registrar‑style documentation into a permanent artifact meant to endure for generations.

Because the coins I document are often secured in vaults and rarely handled, the artwork and print suite become the collector’s daily point of connection—the accessible embodiment of an inaccessible treasure. The codex, the originals, and the hand‑deckled pigment prints together form a representational artifact that brings the coin’s history, structure, and beauty into the spaces where the owner actually lives and works.

OM: What are your long-term goals regarding your artwork?

RJ: Every codex I create is made entirely by my own hand. I conduct the research, prepare the illustrations, design the layouts, and write the technical commentary myself. This is not a process that can be delegated or accelerated; it is simply the way I work. Because each codex requires nearly a full month of focused effort, the total number I will be able to complete is naturally limited. 

At this stage of my life, I expect my lifetime output to fall somewhere between 100 and 200 codices. That number is not a goal or a marketing statement—it is simply the practical reality of a craft that depends entirely on individual, hands‑on work. When my working years come to an end, this body of work will end with them. My hope is that these volumes will stand as a record of the coins they honor and as a reflection of the dedication I have brought to the study and presentation of numismatic history since beginning this work in 2022. 

Numismatics is, at its core, a human story. My work is simply an attempt to honor that story in a form that feels worthy of the objects we study. I’m grateful to the ANA for supporting scholarship, preservation, and the artists who contribute to the field.