Beware of dragons...
Hyperion
Posts: 7,440 ✭✭✭
Hyperion
Posts: 7,440 ✭✭✭
Hyperion
Posts: 7,440 ✭✭✭
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Now there's a good collection theme...the dragonslayers.
I have to admit, much as I love this design, I look at the hoof placement/ sword hand and think that St. George won't reach. Plus looking at the hindquarters vs. forequarters of the horse, which hand is holding the blade and I'm thinking the horse is about to fall over sideways before St. George can poke the dragon anyway. (Of course, he'll land sword side up, the dragon will leap up to jump on him and get impaled on the blade and die a gory death...).
I love looking at coins!
Cool pix!
Cathy
<< <i>...Of course, he'll land sword side up, the dragon will leap up to jump on him and get impaled on the blade and die a gory death... >>
8 Reales Madness Collection
...and Basilisks.
The dragon, as a symbol of evil is a beloved theme in all Oriental martial arts, notably kung fu and tai chi. In the yang style long form, a shadowy fight against an invisible opponent which is a dragon, the fight (and therefore the silent form) lasts 25 minutes and it's only at the 24th minute that the warrior slays the dragon. At that particular moment, the teacher and every student of the form, are bending their left knee, while their right one is touching the ground and at the same time, the right arm (sword in hand) gives the final hit to the dragon/snake. The form is still not over. The (student) warriors slowly get up, sweep their swords from the blood and assume a final defending position. After that, they all turn 360 degrees , then they simultaneously kick the right leg and clap their right hand at the external part of their right ankle, a specific point in the body that stimulates euphoria ,a move that signifies the warrior's celebration for winning the fight. If the form is well executed by the group, the (simultaneous) CLAP, is the only sound that will be heard after 25 consecutive minutes of precise shadowy fighting and the last movement before the last bow of the end of the form.
I've been practicing it since 2003, and still can't get it right.
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DPOTD 3
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DPOTD 3
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Cool Basiliks by the way--now there's another coin theme--mystical creatures mentioned in Harry Potter--that's two of them already (and no fair using the IOM or wherever HP commemorative coins...). Deciding on the 'witch' alone would take years of debate as to the best coin.
Cathy
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
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http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/carnivorousdinosaurs/p/megalosaurus.htm
About Megalosaurus:
When the partial femur of Megalosaurus was unearthed in England in 1676, a professor at Oxford University identified it as belonging to a human giant--since 17th-century theologists couldn't wrap their minds around the concept of huge, lumbering reptiles from a land before time.
In many ways, Megalosaurus was your garden-variety theropod dinosaur, indistinguishable from a host of other big-headed, large-toothed carnivores of the late Jurassic period. What really sets this predator apart is the fact that it was the first dinosaur ever to be discovered and named: a fossilized femur of Megalosaurus was dug up in England in 1676, but it wasn't until 150 years later--after further discoveries--that it was given its name, Greek for "great lizard," by the early paleontologist William Buckland.
The early discovery of Megalosaurus did a lot for the burgeoning science of paleontology, but it had a detrimental effect as well--for decades afterward, every dinosaur fossil that even vaguely resembled Megalosaurus was assigned to its genus (this was before scientists had appreciated the vast diversity of dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era). This confusion is still being sorted out, as various "species" of Megalosaurus are occasionally reexamined and assigned to their own genera.
By the way, Megalosaurus has the distinction of being the first dinosaur ever to appear in a work of fiction. Way before the Hollywood era, Charles Dickens name-dropped this dinosaur in his novel Bleak House: "It would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill."
Here's one of my all time favs, owned it for years and years and years. Better yet its a twofer: dragon ship on the face and a lovely dragon on the back. Lots going on for a cheap note!
More dragons:
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DPOTD 3
That one yen Dimitri...that one looks familiar, have you shown that before?
My most new favorite dragon..I bought it raw in Tokyo and finally sent it in across the street...it was a big (for me) roll of the dice in a busy, sub-optimal lighting type of venue Turned out okay
I wished I'd sprung for the $3 to get imaging, but I had silly stuff on the submission too, and I didn't want to be 'wasteful'.
And since we've got basilisks, the gaze of which could supposedly turn someone to stone, I suppose Medusa is also appropriate.
(Speaking of monster attacks, you may have already read about the horrifying fate of that coin.)
Great "mythical beasties" thread, everyone.
Don- wow- that 1887 proof crown just blows my mind.
WB2- izzat a dragon, or a griffon? Looks griffon-esque. Either way, it fits.
STLNATS- that beautiful turn-of-the century German (and Russian) currency could almost tempt me into collecting paper... almost.
Dimitri- I knew some Far Eastern dragons were inevitable on this thread, but the ones you posted are especially lovely.
<< <i>
The colour! My EYEEEEES!!!
8 Reales Madness Collection
<< <i>
The colour! My EYEEEEES!!!
I think it's cool, and, amazingly, no one painted on a pair of shorts for St. G.
Medusa...coooolllll.
More Greece: