Images of coins flicker in my head

laurentyvan · October 29, 2003 7:11AM

Well, another slow wednesday afternoon so I'll have to post this for my long-suffering friends, inspired by two very special coins.

Images of coins flicker in my head,
of kings and queens long since dead.
They awake at night, alive in dreams,
ephemeral no more, or so it seems.

They sit on thrones and tell me stories
of days gone by, of former glories;
how their coins were spent or put away
or proudly placed on display.

George the third on a penny bright
told me a story late one night
of a moneyer who, in a fit of pique
made sure 1808 would be unique.

“Small coins were few during my reign
and one was minted for private gain.
A single penny, a copper proof
was secretly struck; it’s god’s own truth.”

Queen Victoria of great renown
told me a tale of her gothic crown.
“Two skillful engravers, Wyon and Dyce
after conversing rendered me this advice:

Your crown we should strike with bodice fair,
and regal appointments in your hair.
With gothic script we’ll letter and then
along the edge add “decus et tutamen”.

Small stories told long by these regal folk
occupied my dreams until I awoke.
But was it a dream because passing strange
were two coins I found in my pocket change.

A crown and penny, old and rare,
with obverses up and eyes that stared.
It seemed they spoke with lips unsealed-
“tonight more secrets will be revealed”.

So to bed, to bed, the lamplight out;
the house is quiet and I have no doubt
that as I sleep king and queen I’ll see
and defer to them on bended knee.

It's obvious I've spent way too many nights reading my new coincraft before I sleep