Melecio Figueroa

In 1892, he returned to the Philippines with his family to teach engraving as a professor at the Escuela de Dibujo, Pintura y Grabado (later the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts) in Manila. He was appointed in 1893 as engraver to the Casa Moneda or colonial mint. Figueroa also continued to repair watches as a side business and opened a silversmith shop in Manila. He also attended the Malolos Congress as a delegate, and taught at the Liceo de Manila until his death in 1903.^[2]

At the 1875 Exposición de Bellas Artes, Figueroa sculpted a bust of King Alfonso XII. His work was recognized and he was given a pension. While in Rome, he created a bust of the then-Prince Odescalchi.^[3] 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.^[1] Figueroa's designs featured in Philippine peso coins until the 1960s.^[2]

Figueroa's design was later adopted as the Great Seal of the United States-administered Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, and saw use after his death from 1903 to 1935.^[4]

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.^[5]

Figueroa died of tuberculosis on July 30, 1903, and was buried in Paco, Manila.^[1]