Felix Oscar Schlag (September 4, 1891 – March 9, 1974) was a German born American sculptor who was the designer of the United States five cent coin in use from 1938 to 2004.[1]
He was born to Karl and Teresa Schlag in Frankfurt, Germany where as a young man, he served in the German army of World War I. Schlag studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.[2] He moved to the United States in 1929.
On April 21, 1938, Schlag's design for the Jefferson nickel was selected by Nellie Tayloe Ross, Director of the United States Mint. Schlag won $1,000 for his winning design of the coin; he had been an award-winning artist in Europe. His prize money was spent on his wife's funeral. In the 1930s, Felix won several sculptural commissions and art prizes including some New Deal commissions to produce work at several post offices, including ones in White Hall, Illinois and schools in Champaign, Illinois and Bloom Township.[3]
Schlag accepted the offer of the American government to place his initials, FS, on the nickel beginning in 1966.
The designer relocated to Owosso, Michigan, where he died and is buried. He and his wife Anna, whom he married in 1920, had three children: Feliza (1920), Leo (1921), and Hilda (1929). A memorial was placed by the Michigan State Numismatic Society on September 14, 2008.
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The Jefferson nickel has been the five-cent coin struck by the United States Mint since 1938, when it replaced the Buffalo nickel. From 1938 until 2004, the copper-nickel coin's obverse featured a profile depiction of Founding Father and third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson by artist Felix Schlag; the obverse design used in 2005 was also in profile, though by Joe Fitzgerald. Since 2006 Jefferson's portrayal, newly designed by Jamie Franki, faces forward. The coin's reverse is still the Schlag original, although in 2004 and 2005 the piece bore commemorative designs.
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