Ivakhnenko Oleksandr

Oleksandr Ivakhnenko (8 September 1931, Staropetrivka — 8 December 2003, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian painter, graphic artist and designer, and an Honored Art Worker of Ukraine. For a coin-author page, the most relevant part of his work is applied state graphics: the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine notes that he created the first postage stamps of independent Ukraine, designed state awards and authored numerous jubilee and commemorative coins. The Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum also notes that Ivakhnenko served as chief artistic consultant for the issue of jubilee coins at the National Bank of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Wikipedia article adds a concrete numismatic detail: for the NBU he prepared sketches for a number of jubilee coins, including the first coin issued by the bank on 7 May 1995, the 50 Years of Victory in World War II coin, as well as Independence, Golden Gate, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Heroes of the Cossack Era series. In the UA Coins catalog his name is connected with the early period of Ukrainian commemorative coinage: Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, Hero City Kyiv, Lesia Ukrainka, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Oranta, Cossack Mamai and Petro Sahaidachnyi. These works show the language of a graphic artist combining historical portraiture, state symbolism and the visual tradition of Ukrainian book and postage-stamp graphics of the 1990s.