1997 MIT Mystery Hunt Puzzle 37 Solution

If you connect the quarters by drawing lines in the direction Washington is looking from each one of them, the lines spell out the word OPERA (not exactly the way it is drawn on the puzzle page). The nickels connect in the same way to spell AUTHOR. And then there are three stray pennies. The full message is THREEPENNY OPERA AUTHOR which clues the answer, BRECHT.