Melecio Figueroa

Melecio Figueroa (1842-1903) was a Filipino sculptor and engraver whose design of the Great Seal of the Philippines was featured in a previous coin series of the Philippine peso.

Early life and education Melecio Figueroa Magbanua was born on May 24, 1842, in Arevalo, Iloilo, to Gabriela Magbanua and Rufo Figueroa. At an early age, his mother Gabriela died, and both he and his sister were sent to relatives in Sorsogon, who were cake vendors. As a child, he carved wooden boats and dolls which he gave away to his friends.

At the age of 16, he was selected by the Ayuntamiento de Manila as one of two Filipino artists to be sent to Spain At the Exposición de Filipinas in 1887 held in Madrid, he served as a judge and also designed the medals awarded at the event. In 1903, he joined a competition for the Philippine peso coinage system, and his design was selected as the winner. The coinage system was known as the Conant Series, after financial expert Charles Arthur Conant.

Personal life and death While in Madrid, Figueroa married Enriqueta Romero in 1888. They had four children, three of whom were born in Spain but died early. His surviving child, Blanca, was born in 1892 while they were en route by ship to the Philippines. She served as a model for some of her father's coinage designs, and (imagined as an adult) the personification of “Filipinas” on the Great Seal.

Figueroa died of tuberculosis on July 30, 1903, and was buried in Paco, Manila.