Any coins with a skull and crossbones?

comma

I saw a member's avatar (surfinxHI) that had a skull and crossbones on a coin. He didn't know what it was...I was just curious, are there any coins that have skull and crossbones? US or World? Thanks!

TexasNationals

The icon in question is a George Washington death medal from 1799 I believe, they are big buck medals.

dcarr

I do not know of any actual legal-tender coins.
There are several medals, tokens, rounds, etc.
Like this one:

njcoincrank

I have had examples of Washington's funeral medal with the skull & crossbones. But the coolest depiction of this I have is engraved on the planed down reverse of a seated quarter. It was this piece, and the research I did about it, that exposed me to "The Knights of The Golden Circle". No doubt in my mind it was some sort of membership ID. It was never holed, nor does it show any signs of a pin-back having been removed. I think it was intended to be carried on one's person, out of the public view.

NJCC

PerryHall

<< <i>I saw a member's avatar (surfinxHI) that had a skull and crossbones on a coin. He didn't know what it was...I was just curious, are there any coins that have skull and crossbones? US or World? Thanks! >>



Perhaps it was a pirate coin.

savoyspecial

coinman420

while i don`t know if it applies to coins and medals the skull and crossbones is called a Jolly Roger.

TURBO

<< <i> >>



What coin is this please?

Dentuck

<< <i>
What coin is this please? >>



Not a coin but the British war medal for 1914 - 1918.

savoyspecial

Dennis beat me to it (and he is correct, as usual)



a mount was removed just north of the rider's head

DNADave

Google "Goetz medals"

The web site is down right now but you'll want to check back later.

I'm sure he did some skulls....but they're on medals not coins.

from an older thread

comma

Thanks for the input guys!
I like subject matter like this that is "rare" to find on coins...it intrigues me!

And that is a very cool war medal!

I have heard of the Washington Funeral medals...didn't remember seeing the Jolly Roger

lordmarcovan

There are some old German thalers ("death thalers", they're often called), which were struck to commemorate the death of a king. Some of those feature a skull and/or crossbones, if I remember correctly. It was a popular design element in the 17th century, and is common on tombstones of the period, as those of you in New England can probably attest. I live in Georgia, and our colonial cemeteries don't go back quite that far- the skull and crossbones motif sort of phased out of tombstone design by the mid 18th century, to be replaced by the "soul portrait", or angel's face type designs. The oldest tombstone I've found in this area dates to 1767 and has a soul portrait (face with wings on either side).

Small wonder pirates adopted the skull and crossbones motif, since it was in common use around the time Atlantic and Caribbean piracy was in its golden age.

lordmarcovan

BTW, surfinxHI's avatar picture is from one of the Washington funeral medals previously mentioned.

PS. Oh. Duh. Yeah, gee, thanks, LordM, we'll call you Captain Obvious from here on out. TexasNationals had already confirmed that.

SurfinxHI

whoo-hoo, now I know...!

Being in forensics, I just thought it was cool....

lordmarcovan

Here's a "death thaler" on the British Museum site.

Not the greatest of pictures, but if you supersize it, you can see the coin features an entire skeleton on it.

I'm pretty sure some others used the skull and crossbones.

All of this imagery is collectively referred to as Memento Mori- to remind us all that life is short. The idea was not so much to be ghoulish, but rather to suggest that we spend our short time on earth as wisely as possible.

(By collecting coins instead of Beanie Babies or NASCAR memorabilia, maybe? Haha.)

Which is why it was also a feature on tombstones, of course, until it went out of fashion in the mid-1700s or so.

I think the pirates just sort of stole the symbol and ran with it. (Seems a typical pirate thing to do, doesn't it? Aaarrr!)

I'll add that the use of a memento mori device on the Washington funeral medals of 1799 is a rather late manifestation of that imagery. As I mentioned before, it was going out of style with the Age of Enlightenment, and by the Victorian era, people wanted no part of it. (Which is why in the 1800s they used willow trees and angels and stuff on their tombstones, for the most part). Fast forward to today, and our denial of death is even more acute- we've segregated it away from daily life, except for more clinical settings like hospitals. To the people who made and used these great old coins and wore the Washington medals, however, death was a constant- if not entirely welcome- companion.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

I've been a fan of old cemeteries since I was a kid. I don't really know why. I suppose it's because they are places where time seems to stand still. My old fascination with time is one thing that got me interested in old coins, for similar reasons. I remember walking this one old country cemetery in North Carolina...

(Actually, I should confess that I was hunting for coins there with a metal detector- not on the graves but around the trees. I had just dug my first Seated dime, as a matter of fact- an 1884- from beneath a big oak. A much older Indian arrowhead came up in the same hole when I dug it.)

Anyway, I came across the oldest marked stone in the graveyard, dated 1807 (really old for that part of the NC mountains). It said something like this:

Remember me as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so you shall be
Prepare for death and follow me.

It really reached out and grabbed me, you might say. It was touching and chilling at the same time. I thought about how that person must have been when they were alive, and wondered if in the distant future, some two centuries after MY death, if somebody would look down at MY tombstone and wonder about me. I've since discovered that was a popular stock epitaph on old gravestones.

edix2001

These by Michael Shaudis: