An alphabet of favourite national designs

[<k>]

Officially it is a ladybird beetle ("La coccinella"). Only about 6000 possibilities (species) remaining.

Thank you, Stef. Now that you say that, it looks obvious. The colours are absent from the coin, of course.

Yes, we Brits call them ladybirds. The Americans usually call them ladybugs. A German woman once told me the German word for the insect and asked me the English term. I told her "ladybird". She gave me a dirty look, telling me, "But it's not a BIRD!" She must have thought I was tricking her. I'd never really thought about the "bird" part before - I just thought of it as one word and one concept. The German word is more like "Mary beetle", as in Virgin Mary, for some reason.

[chrisild]

Odd word, yes, but farmers used to believe that those useful insects were a gift from St. Mary - hence Marienkäfer in German, ladybird/ladybug in English, mariquita (little Mary) in Spanish, and so on.

The French "bête à bon Dieu" is a little different but comes with an even better story.   Some time in the Middle Ages, a man was to be beheaded. He had said many times that he was innocent, but ... So when his head was placed on the block, a ladybird came to sit right on his neck. The executioner tried to move it away, but it would come back and land on the very same spot, again and again. Ultimately the king considered this to be a divine intervention and pardoned the guy. Even better, a few days later the actual crinimal was caught ...

Christian

[<k>]

See: Why "ladybird?".

Extract:

it is generally considered more likely that bird simply refers to the insect's winged nature and flying abilities, as is evident in other European languages such as German, which calls the ladybird Frauenhenne, 'the lady's hen'.

Lady apparently refers to the seven spots of the Coccinella septempunctata, which were popularly supposed to symbolize the seven pains of the Virgin Mary. The link between the Virgin Mary and the insect's name has been drawn more clearly in the Swedish regional jungfru Mariae höna and jungfru Marias gullhöna, literally 'Virgin Mary's hen' and 'Virgin Mary's golden hen' respectively, and the German Marienkäfer ('Mary's beetle'). Ladybird may therefore mean '(Our) Lady's bird'.

[Oklahoman]

I like that the man depicted as a warrior on the North Korean coin, and the scholar depicted on the South Korean coin, are of the same Korwan hero,   Lee Soon-shin.

[SquareEarth]

For China, my favorite Imperial coin would be the Xuantong One Dollar.

[Figleaf]

 

[SquareEarth]

My favourite RoC coin, the Zhang Zuolin 50 dollars gold

[SquareEarth]

My favourite PRC coin, 1 Yuan Great Wall of 1980

[SquareEarth]

Iran Shahanshah and Shahbanou at Persian Empire 2500 ceremony

[SquareEarth]

Perhaps <k> likes more intriguing designs?

[Figleaf]

My favourite PRC coin, 1 Yuan Great Wall of 1980

I think this coin shows what is now labelled as the "difficult" or "steep" part of the wall. I was there in the mid seventies, at the time when every Chinese (excluding only the young ladies at the entrance of restaurants) wore a Mao suit, with ballpoint pens in the tit pockets to indicate rank.

Where there is a complex of buildings now, there was only a huge public toilet (don't ask what it was like!) and a Soviet type ticket selling kiosk at the entrance. Next to the entrance kiosk was a sign, saying that this section of the wall was built in the 1960s by volunteers. At the time, this was common knowledge and everyone also knew that the volunteers were prisoners. Today, that sign has disappeared and the reconstructed segment is claimed to be original. If you go there, climb to the end, look out of the tower and you will see the real wall continue.

Peter

[<k>]

Perhaps <k> likes more intriguing designs?

Our tastes are different, it's true, but it's good to see somebody taking an interest in my topic. The double portrait of the Shah of Iran and his wife is very stylish. However, it lacks text, so it looks too medallic for my own tastes - there is just a little too much blank space.