This Coin Artist Turns Street Treasures Into Stunning Art Pieces

If you see loose coins—five, 10, or 25 centavo coins—while walking on the street, would you pick them up or just ignore them? Most of us, who are in a rush to beat the clock-in time at work, would probably not mind these small denominations as we hurry along, preoccupied with the day's demands and the busy pace of life.

But Marites Gonzaga, the Corporate Manager of the Araneta Archives and Deputy Director of the President Manuel A. Roxas Foundation (PMARF), would take the time to pick up coins lying on the streets, gutters, or canals during her walks along the stretch of Imperial Street to Aurora Tower. Sometime in 2006, she moved to an apartment in Cubao from San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan to be nearer to her place of work.

"Not a day passes by that I don't get any coins. I collect at least minimum total of two pesos a day while walking along the streets of Cubao," says Gonzaga. 

"Every day, I never fail to pick up lots of coins—the five, 10, and 25 centavo ones, and even P1 and P5 coins a few times," she tells Esquire Philippines. After more than ten years, she amassed over 20 bottles of these coins, which are displayed on the bookshelf inside her bedroom.

"I just love rescuing street dogs and cats, as well as things that are thrown away but still worth something. I like repairs and restorations," explains Gonzaga, who spearheaded the restoration of the presidential car of Manuel Roxas.

"Just watching these coins bottled on the shelf, I thought, what a waste. It took me more than ten years to gather them, and I just couldn’t bring them to the bank, feeling certain that people who care less about coins—which you couldn’t use to buy food or things—would just ignore them again and not bother picking them up from the streets, gutters, or canals. I felt that if I returned them to the bank, I would start picking them all up again on the streets," she says.

Coins Gonzaga had collected from the streets for over ten years had been displayed on her bookshelf. 

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Guided by Instinct

Finally, one Saturday in 2017, she spread half a sheet of plywood on her bedroom floor, poured all the five and 10 centavo coins onto the board, and started doodling with them, much like one would with a pencil and paper, to see what she could form, similar to mosaic art.

"You would be amazed at how coins seem to have a life of their own: your fingers seemingly fall under their command, and the figures start to take shape. Voila, there was this tree forest—my first coin art piece," she recalls.

Beginning the Mona Lisa coin art 

After crafting her "first blatantly amateurish piece" guided by instinct, she started Googling about coin art and was surprised to learn that in America, coins are even used as decorative flooring materials.

From then on, she started posting on Facebook about her coin art, and her officemates from Araneta City and even from the National Food Authority (NFA), where she had worked for 20 years, began giving her their own loose change, which had been kept unused in drawers for years.

"Some rice retailers from Laguna, who know me because my best friend Elen Ganelo was their NFA Manager for four years, also gave me lots of coins," she says. One University of the Philippines law professor even went out of her way to visit Gonzaga's residence just to bring her saved coins, and so did her apartment neighbors.

Tree coin art by Gonzaga

Coin Creations

Over the past years, Gonzaga, now 74 years old and works as a consultant for the Araneta Group and PMARF, has created several coin artworks: the face of Jesus Christ, the face of Mona Lisa, a forest of trees, two birds on a twig, six big trees, four small trees, four flower vases, two sets of jars, and a peacock. "I couldn’t go on making more because there is no space to place them in the apartment where we live," she says.
She once showcased her works, along with all the artist-employees of Araneta City, in a company exhibit back in 2018. Last year, she joined the Mindoro Artists Group in a successful one-month Sining Sinag Art Exhibit in Calapan City, featuring both established painters from Oriental Mindoro, as well as new and promising young artists.

Come February 14, the Calapan City born coin artist will be joining another exhibit at the Oriental Mindoro Heritage Museum, where 16 members of the Mindoro Artists Group will be featured. These include the nation's Master Watercolor Artist Rafael "Popoy" Cusi, Mindoro Historian Florante Villarica, renowned forest and underwater landscape artist Wilfredo "Jun" Rufon, muralist Justine Eve Venus, among others.

Forest of trees coin art by Gonzaga

"I'm currently working on this Mangyan face. I asked photographer Jacob Maentz for permission to use it in the Mindoro exhibit," she offers.

"My dream is to display them all in our house in Mindoro, transforming it into a semi-art museum called The Coin House," she says.

When asked about the fulfillment she derives from creating coin art, Gonzaga smiles and says, "Oh I must say, with a bit of exaggeration, as thrilled and overjoyed as how Da Vinci might have felt after painting the Mona Lisa."