Some of these are really pretty good.
The best designs are sculpted and 3d scanned these days. Coins are 3d not 2d and sharp vertical edges do not give a good feel when held in a hand. This sharpness can even remove skin.
This scanning can also be done with actual objects. (like those leaves gracing the left curve of the obverse of acorn's)
Generally sculpting then doing a cast in plaster is best, and then doing a mold, and then carving out the mold, and reversing it... you can go back and forth in this manner until you have it perfected. There is a qualitative difference that is very difficult to reproduce with only a computer.
Computer only designs tend to be sharp, and it is difficult to get the sort of soft grace and majesty that some of the most famous coin designs are known for. I am delighted by the amount of quality art that this contest is producing.
The earliest coin designers are among the first artists whose names survive to today.
Most sculptors of that period did not sign their work and other art was more transient and didn't survive. But some of the earliest coinmakers did mark theirs thousands of years ago.
