Dragons on coins

[nguyen anh tu]

LIBERIA 5 CENTS 2000

[nguyen anh tu]

JAPAN - MEIJI 1 SEN 1877

[nguyen anh tu]

KOREA 5 FUN 1893 . 

[nguyen anh tu]

AND TWO DRAGONS FROM CHINA

[Figleaf]

In China, Japan, Korea and other areas in East Asia, the dragon was a symbol of state and the colour indicated rank. These dragons (snake or fish body, chicken feet) are the equivalent of the European coat of arms. The Liberian coin is simply a reference to the Asian "year of the dragon", an attempt to make commercial profits from a zodiac that is definitely not from the Liberian culture.

Peter

[nguyen anh tu]

 DRAGON HEAD FROM US MILITARY TOKEN

[<k>]

Portugal, 200 escudos, 1996.  Settlement of Macao.

[SquareEarth]

Vietnamese Year of The Dragon (2000)


Make it two.

[SquareEarth]

A dragon cannot be a dragon without all the clouds it rouses.
2000, PRC, 10 Yuan.


2012, PRC, 10 Yuan
Though both years are dragon (5th in the 12 year cycle), 2000 was Year Gengchen(17th in a 60 year cycle), 2012 was Year Renchen (29th in a 60 year cycle). These are shown on the coins as well.

[SquareEarth]

There are so many of Chinese coins (Or .hk, .sg, .kr, .jp, .vn, coins etc.) featuring dragons, that it's becoming a cliche.
And hence I'm not going to post these "made for collectors" stuff any more, if there is no cultural significance attached to it.

And the whole world jumps into this bandwagon, despite little or no connections culturally whatsoever.

Transnistria, 100 roubles, 2012.   Year of the dragon.

Three things annoys me
1) Their history is not related to dragon AT ALL, and yet they made this so that a Chinese person would be foolish enough to buy it.
2) The dragon has bat-wings...
3) The fake "Chinese" font. ШФЦLD THЭУ БЭ HДPPУ IF CHIИД MДКЭ Д CФIИ, FЭДTЦЯIИG DФЦБLЭ-ЭДGLЭ ШITH ИФ ШIИG, ШITH THЭ FДКЭ CУЯILLIC FФИT?

CHuan

[paisepagal]

Interesting....so that Chinese character is just some rubbish scrawled on ?

[SquareEarth]

Singapore can be forgiven for flooding the world with dragon coins, they actually do have dragon dances each Chinese New Year, i.e. it's apart of their culture still.

Baby dragon. With symbols of "Happiness(dragon ball), Fortune(Japanese gold coin???), and Longevity(Peach of Immortality, and "Mountain of the South"). 
It's very creative.


A carp becomes a dragon if it jumps across the "Gate of Dragon", so this one counts as well.
(Singaporean coin designers actually know the story behind dragons, unlike the Transylvanian designer in the previous post.)

[paisepagal]

Bhutan is the dragon kingdom and there are alot of collector coins that depict them



 

[SquareEarth]

Interesting....so that Chinese character is just some rubbish scrawled on ?

That Chinese character means "dragon" in simplified Chinese, but the font for Cyrillic is a a bizarre fake Chinese font(see below), and the Chinese word is kept consistent to that fake Chinese font.

This is not Chinese!!!!!!

[SquareEarth]

Speaking of Fonts, the nicest font to be feature on a coin is the "Seal Script", i.e, the script actually used on ancient bronze wares.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script

The 4 Chinese characters here are "Felicitous Dragons Offer Auspice"

The coin was struck in 1988, Year Wuchen(5th in a 60 year cycle, see post #50).