Ancient mythology on modern coins

Started by ghipszky, July 09, 2008, 04:19:37 PM

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ghipszky

I wonder what other ancient deities figure into today's coins?? What about Britannia and Victory(or Nike)?
Ginger

Figleaf

#1
Excellent question, Ginger. Thanks. Some that come to mind immediately are:



- A winged victory on Mexican gold (actually a statue celebrating independence on a pillar in Mexico city).




- Athena on the Greek 20 Drachmai. phoenix and Pegasus (do they count?) on the 5 and 10 Drachmai, KM 109, 110, 112

- Demeter on a large number of French coins, e.g. 5 francs 1870






- Aequitas on the 50 centesimi of Italy (KM 61, here at 300% of KM), pegasus on the 10 lire KM 90




There are probably more ...

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

ghipszky

No this could be a very interesting topic. I have even seen movies that talk about the way our government(US) is set up could be based on the Roman government with the Senate, etc.
So why should coins throughout the yrs have designs that first came from ancient civilizations.
Ginger
I hope more people can think of more examples.

Figleaf

#3
Jupiter, Saturn, Phoebus, Mars, Mercury and Spes on the emergency dalers of Sweden, KM 357-369.

Hercules on French 5 franc coins.

Mmm. This mixes deities, personifications and legendary people and animals. Oh well ...

We should have some more pictures in this thread, so here's an experiment. The illustration is from the KM DVD at 150% size. It works perfectly well on my screen.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

ghipszky

I will check out my 1923 Peace dollar to see what the figure on there looks like, and I will check some others I have.
But it will be up to others, to hopefully, post some coins with these images on them!
This is going to get really interesting!
I only have them on ancient coins.
Ginger

Miguel.mateo

#5
Europa and Zeus, on the Greek €2 coin and in the Belgian €10 collectors' silver coin. 

Link here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_%28mythology%29#The_continent

Picture of the Belgian €10 collectors' silver coin attached.

Miguel.mateo

#6
An Palla Athenea on an Austrian €10 collectors' coin.

Regards,

Miguel.

ghipszky

On this coin is holding a globe with victory standing on it?
Ginger

ghipszky

What a beauty of a coin the Europa and Zeus is!
Ginger

chrisild

#9
Quote from: ghipszky on July 10, 2008, 07:11:26 PM
On this coin is holding a globe with victory standing on it?
Yes, she holds a small statue of the goddess Nike in her hand. That statue is in front of the parliament building in Vienna; here http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Vienna_Pallas_closeup.jpg is a large detailed image.

In 2003 and 2007, Spain issued collector coins featuring Europa and the Bull too:


(Images from Wikipedia)

Christian

chrisild

#10
Some more ancient deities, with links to (small) images ...

Athens Academy, featuring statues of Apollo and Pallas Athene (€100 GR 2004)


Zeus next to a map of Greece (€10 GR 2006)


Europa and the bull again (€2 IT 2005)


A Roman sestertius with the goddess of peace (€10 IT 2005)


Mars and Venus, from a Mantegna painting (€5 SM 2006)


Christian

ghipszky

Wow Chrisild what amazingly beautiful statue! And coins are amazing. It is nice to see old things on new coins.
Ginger

lusomosa

#12
Greetings,

The Athena on the 10€ Austrian coin Miguel posted some days ago must be inpired by this statue ( in front of the Parlement in Vienna ).
This in turn was inspired by a famous work in classic Athens of the V century BC.

LP

ghipszky

Isn't it wonderful how history and art work together?!
Here is one of the US coins I have, does it relate to Sol?
Ginger

lusomosa

#14
Difficult to say,
In Roman times LIBERTAS was not represented with a radiated head. It was either represented with laurel leafs, with a veil or wearing nothing at all.
In more recent years liberty was represented many times but never with rays on her head.
I did find one exception.... The last coin on the series is French  5 Francs from 1848 and has a radiated female head. Is this Liberty ?????
I don't really know but it would fit in the French Ideal of the second half of the 19th century wich in fact produced the Statue of Liberty in New York and started a trend of placing a radiated head on a female head. Not many other contries followed this and even the french minted many other coins without radiated heads.

LP