Letter
Dear Mr. Peterson:
In its meeting of 16 February, the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed alternative designs for a Congressional Gold Medal honoring the Montford Point Marines. Rather than selecting specific designs as presented, the Commission recommended a combination of elements from several alternatives with the following comments.
For the obverse, the Commission members recommended a modification of alternative #4, requesting that the composition be simplified by removing the group of leaping soldiers from the bottom of the design, and suggesting that the superior portraiture in alternative #5 be used as a model for further developing the marines' faces shown in profile. For the reverse, they recommended none of the presented alternatives, instead proposing that the dynamic scene of leaping soldiers from obverse alternative #4 be used within the overall composition of reverse alternative #6. In general, they recommended careful modeling of the faces to depict more successfully the African–American marines being honored.
As always, the staff is available to assist you with future submissions.
Sincerely,
/s/Thomas E. Luebke, FAIA
Secretary
Richard A. Peterson, Deputy Director
United States Mint
801 9th Street, NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20220
cc: Ron Harrigal, U.S. Mint