Stacey Lee Webber's The Imagine Series

Since 2010, Stacey Lee Webber has meticulously transformed coins into intricate, hand-sawn artworks, exploring themes of history, value, and global connection. Her Imagine Series reimagines currency as a medium for storytelling, cutting portraits, architecture, animals, and symbols from coins worldwide. Each piece is manually crafted using a traditional jeweler’s saw, a meticulous process that gives new life to materials designed for commerce.

The series began with three foundational works displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show—one featuring portraits in a grid, another layering the remnants of missing heads, and a third depicting a seascape with boats, birds, and waves formed by forged coin reeds. Over the years, Webber has expanded the series, creating landscapes, symbolic imagery, and intricate collages of global currencies.

In 2024, Webber’s cut coin works were exhibited at Scope Art Fair in Miami with Bertrand Productions, including a landscape formed from cut pennies featuring Abraham Lincoln and a dynamic ocean scene created from international coins. Another landmark piece was her 2021 commissioned waterfall scene, set in a custom oval frame, further pushing the boundaries of the series.

Most recently, Webber has introduced coin bouquets—delicate compositions of hand-sawn coins arranged into intricate floral arrangements. These works bring together imagery from different nations and time periods, uniting portraits, architecture, animals, and symbols into a single, harmonious vision.

The Imagine Series takes inspiration from John Lennon's 1971 song Imagine, reflecting a vision of unity, interconnectedness, and artistry beyond borders. By deconstructing and reassembling coins, Webber challenges the meaning of money, transforming it from a tool of commerce into a visual language of history and human connection.