We are pleased to announce Department 962 employee, Cheyne Ordonio, as the Winner of the first-ever High Five Coin Design Contest.
Cheyne was inspired to join the contest as he himself has a coin collection, including challenge coins, old coins from the past, a three-cent piece, several silver dollars and half dollars as well as other unusual coins. “I thought it would be nice to have a coin I designed myself and drew on some of the design elements from the coins I have in my collection,” said Cheyne.
Cheyne’s design was inspired by how picturesque the shipyard can be at sunrise. “The geometric shapes in the background imitate the large buildings in the shipyard, and the colors are a representation of what I see every morning when leaving third shift. I wanted the centerpiece of the coin to be the submarine and modeled it after the shape of the EB bug, where the letters E and B form the shape of a submarine. I also wanted the American flag to be prominent on the coin because it represents the reason why we do all that we do here at EB,” said Cheyne.
When asked about his design process, Cheyne shared that it started as a simple silver coin with a generic submarine on it. “I mulled it over for a while, decided I wanted a color and Art Deco to look at it and made some changes. Soon, I had a couple different designs, parts of which I liked and parts I didn’t. I merged the parts I liked together and came up with something close to what I finally submitted,” said Cheyne. The final change was to make the submarine look more like a Virginia-class submarine, using that familiar shape of the EB bug logo to create a head-on view of the submarine on the face of the coin. “Condensed, it probably took four to five hours to design, but the process took place over a few weeks,” he said.
The most rewarding part of the design contest experience for Cheyne was the opportunity to exercise some of the skills he has outside of what his day-to-day job entails. “That and winning,” said Cheyne.
27 employees submitted their designs for the contest, and the winner was selected by QP Vice President Charlie Montalbano. “The level of detail and color in Cheyne’s design is simply amazing,” said Charlie. “I continue to be impressed with the level of talent here at Electric Boat. Our shipbuilders always step up to the challenge.”
Thank you to all of the contestants who participated in the contest. We appreciate your efforts and look forward to your continued ideas in 2026!
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