George would be proud!

The idea for this CoinArt came about as I was sifting through old slides from my mom’s garage. Like many families growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, I can remember Saturday evenings in our darkened rec room – my dad carefully inserting slides into a carousel and all of us kids patiently waiting for the night’s main attraction – a slide show from our latest vacation or holiday!

As I held the slides up to the light several months ago, I found one intriguing slide (shown above) that my father took, probably around 1960 when he and my mom first moved to Virginia as newlyweds. What made it special to me was that after my father retired as a government employee, he volunteered at Mount Vernon for over a decade, greeting and helping visitors. In fact, he recently received an award for over 1000 hours of service! How cool was it to find a photo he took from 60 years ago of an historical landmark in Alexandria that he loved so much. At first, I planned to frame it – but then I came up with the idea to create a special CoinArt and the wheels started turning.

The next task was to curate a coin from Dad’s birth year to compliment the framed photo and it didn't take long to realize that we needed a coin with George Washington front and center. I put Andrew to the task and he quickly found this 1935 George Washington Quarter with beautiful toning – amazingly in the same color palette as the roof of Mt. Vernon - a perfect match.

I chose our Vintage Black frame with a white mat to bring out the colors of both the photo and the quarter. We are so happy with the way this piece turned out because it is meaningful on so many different levels. I am looking forward to giving it to Dad this coming April as he celebrates his 85th birthday. Let us know if we can work with you to create a unique and personalized gift for a loved one!