Torches on coins

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Few of us will ever see an old-fashioned torch in real life, but it is a sight to behold. I once attended a play, in which at one point the lights were switched off, and an actor came down from the stage and walked along the aisles while carrying a flaming torch. The atmosphere was electric as the orange flames flickered in the darkness. Time seemed to slow down, and I was reminded of Aldous Huxley's description of "the transfiguring quality of light" in his book "The Doors of Perception" (from which the American rock band, The Doors, apparently took their name). That was about as close as I have come to a spiritual experience. Religious orders, and indeed the Nazis (sorry - I don't have five pounds on me!) have been well aware of the impression that flaming torches make on people and crowds and have used them to good effect.

On coins, torches are generally used to represent the Torch of Liberty. How far back this goes, I don't know. Communist regimes are as likely to use that symbol as anyone else, though not many will associate such regimes with liberty.

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USA, one dime.

A torch on a dime of the USA, land of the free.

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Canada, 5 cents, 1944.

Canada's famous Victory Torch on a 5 cents coin of 1944.

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Tanzania, 1 shilling, 1980.

The muscular arm of a revolutionary holds aloft a torch for socialist Tanzania.

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Zaire, 20 makuta, 1976.

Zaire's turn to show its revolutionary spirit.

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Yugoslavia, 50 para, 1955.

Communist Yugoslavia originally used five torches on its coat of arms.

These represented its five constituent nations.

The number of torches was raised to six in 1963.

That was when Bosnia gained recognition as a constituent nation.

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France, 10 francs, 1989.

An angel holds aloft a torch.

It commemorates the spirit of the Bastille.

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Japan, 100 yen, 1964.

The Olympic torch represents the victory associated with sporting prowess.

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Italy, 5 lire, 1948.

This looks more like an ice cream cone than a flaming torch, I'm afraid. 

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Bolivia, 50 centavos, 1937.

[Md. Shariful Islam]

Olympic torch.

[Prosit]

On the Bolivia, 50 centavos, 1937.

What does this symbol mean? Centavos?  Pac Man?

Dale

[FosseWay]

Slightly cheating, but all French* coins minted between 1896 and 1930 carry a tiny torch as the Engraver-General's personal mark, alongside the cornucopia, which is the (unchanging) Paris mintmaster's mark.

* And presumably many coins of French colonies minted at Paris, too.

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Peru, 20 centavos, 1954.

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France, 100 francs, 1954.



Compare it to the Italian coin posted earlier.