Hello everyone.
I have been thinking after seeing how good the "your favourite coin with a bird" topic was, maybe we could share our favourites from the mammal designs.
As for me, my favourite design has to be the sable antelope depicted on Southern Rhodesian florin. I think it is probably the best of George Kruger Gray's designs. (Photo of my own coin)
As for mammal from my country, it is for sure the Tatra chamois depicted on the obverse of 500 Sk commemorating 50 years of Tatras National Park. (Photo: Numizmatika Macho & Chlapovič)
Seriously though, my favourite mammal; (breaking with the current trend here) is not lions but equines, particularly those depicted rearing or in gallop (photos of my own coins):
The last one, I think is actually a hippocampus, a half-horse half-fish creature of classical Greek mythology, but it is listed as a horse on it's Numista page description.
One more kind of mammal I just remembered about:
The Asian elephant featured on the reverse of a Siam (Thailand) 1 Baht from 1860. This pachyderm has been a symbol of Thailand for centuries, and features prominently on many of it's issues until the mid-20th century.
An interesting fact;
King Rama IV (Mongkut) of Siam, for whom this coin was issued in the name of, famously offered to send domesticated elephants to the United States in a 1861 letter to President Lincoln (not for use in the Civil War as fictitiously depicted in The King and I), an offer rejected the following year due to "the American climate not being suitable for elephants".
Thought I'd try to get this thread back in action:
A few lions have been posted before here, but this Tibetian depiction on a 1933-34 3 Srang coin is particularly thought-provoking; it's a very crude design, something that wouldn't be out of place on medieval coinage, and yet it was struck in a secluded corner of the world, over a hundred years after the Industrial Revolution had begun, and in a time when it was possible to fly around the world.
Quote: "sc.rednek"I like this one from Peru with a llama on it. Can't tell from the picture, but the llama is really high relief.
Not many mammals on USA coins, mostly just eagles. So never really thought about it
I like that vicugna.
Just a question. How many animal circulation commemorative series are there now ? I know about Peru, late USSR - early Russia, Kazakhstan, China. Some more ?
Quote: "CassTaylor"Circulation commemorative series?
Many of the post-colonial African countries I referee for have series of NCLTs that depict African animals, especially the "Big Five".
I meant something that is not remotely far from circulation coins.
That´s why I mentioned:
Peru - 1 nuevo sol/1 sol
1991 USSR - bimetallic 5 rubles
early Russia - bimetallic 10 and 50 rubles
Kazakhstan - 50 tenge
China - 5 yuan
Another entry here just because I'm bored ; the Lion of Judah!
Interestingly, the privy marks in exergue beneath the lion indicate these Abyssinian (Ethiopian) coins of Menelik II were minted in Paris around the turn of the 20th century.
