SILVER COINS

GREAT BRITAIN

AUSTRIA

UNITED STATES

FRANCE

ICELAND

LATVIA

MEXICO

PRUSSIA

The Symbolism on Coins

I am including scans of selected SILVER coins

because they represent some of the finest examples of the Engraver's Art

and like Collectible Certificates are replete with SYMBOLISM 

because of its effect on the SUBCONSCIOUS. 

So too is this Page "replete" with Links to other Pages! 

Scans give excellent detail but the color comes out strange:

these coins are all quite shiny and at first the scans were almost black. 

I had to adjust brightness and contrast.

The British Trade Dollar - with Chinese characters on the back -

came into being in order to compete in Asia with the American Silver Dollar, the AUSTRIAN Maria Theresia "Thaler" and the Mexican "Eight Reales" - the last one being the successor to the Original Spanish "Pieces of Eight" from Pirate Legend - which had gained World-Wide acceptance because of their consistent quality. 

The same is true of the emergence of the French "Piastre",

which was actually minted for INDO-CHINA .  

All of them have approximately the same amount of Silver Content:

roughly Three-Quarters of an Ounce, as do the Prussian Five-Mark Piece and the British "Crowns".  The Latvian, Icelandic and French Republic Coins

are all slightly smaller.

Notice "Britannia" in the first Coin

(Click  >HERE< for more on that Symbol)

with a SHIP  and the Trident of Neptune symbolizing the Maritime Trade,

and the different Versions of St George (astride a HORSE) and the Dragon

(one in "Art Deco" no less) on the two British Crowns -

each bearing on the other side a Likeness of

Queen Victoria and King George V respectively. 

Notice also the "Soldier" Figure of Leif Eriksson on the Icelandic Coin.

What could he be holding in his Left Hand?

(Click >HERE< for more on the Soldier as a Symbol)

The two French Coins portray different versions of ATHENA or LADY LIBERTY (holding a FASCES) depending on your point of reference.  We even have a PHRYGIAN CAP on the Mexican Coin.  Four of the Coins are fine examples of the use of the EAGLE as a National Symbol (the American one holding the Symbols of Peace and War and the Mexican the Poisonous Serpent of Aztec Legend) and we see both a LION and a GRYPHON on the Coin from the short-lived Latvian Republic, which again came into existence after the dissolution of the SOVIET EMPIRE, with its own particular Symbolism.

NOTE: Some years back I wrote a book on the related matters of Symbolism or "Metaphor": The Metaphorical Basis of Language: A Study in Cross-Cultural Linguistics or THE LEFT-HANDED HUMMINGBIRD by E. Morgan Kelley, Ph.D. (Edwin Mellen Press, 1992).  I have also had scholarly articles on these topics published around the world - from Europe and the Americas to China - and taught at the University Level for decades.