Michael Gaudioso

Michael Gaudioso is a classically trained sculptor, engraver, and medallic artist whose work appears on some of the most widely held coins in American history. Born and raised in New York City, he studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia before earning his Master of Fine Arts from the New York Academy Graduate School of Figurative Art. From 1995 to 1999, he trained in sculpture at the prestigious Repin Institute in Saint Petersburg, Russia—the Russian Royal Academy of Arts, founded in 1757. Before joining the U.S. Mint, Gaudioso built a multifaceted career as a fine artist, freelance illustrator, and master painter at Willet Hauser, one of America’s oldest stained glass studios. He also taught figure drawing at Villanova University. In 2009, he joined the Mint’s sculpting and engraving department in Philadelphia, where he would spend the next eleven years translating designs into the coins and medals that pass through millions of American hands. During his tenure, Gaudioso sculpted or designed approximately 40 coins and medals spanning Presidential dollars, America the Beautiful quarters, First Spouse gold coins, congressional gold medals, and commemorative programs. His most celebrated achievement—sculpting Emily Damstra’s new reverse design for the Type II American Silver Eagle—marked the first change to America’s flagship bullion coin since its debut in 1986.