New Sheqalim Israeli Coin Named Coin of the Year
Zohar
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Israel’s “Jonah in the Belly of the Fish” silver coin has been voted as Coin of the Year by the Krause Publications, a U.S. publisher of periodicals on numismatics and hobbies.
The coin was chosen as the best among 95 coins, which had been judged in over 10 categories, including best silver coin, most popular, best contemporary event, most historically significant, best gold coin, most artistic, best trade, most innovative, and most inspirational coin.
The selection was made by a panel of judges who are experts in the field, including writers, editors, and members of the American Numismatic Association.
Jonah the Prophet was requested by G-d to warn the city of Nineveh to repent for their sins or their city would be destroyed. Jonah fled from his mission by boarding a ship bound for Tarshish. When a violent storm began, the ship crew cast lots to determine who was responsible, and the lot fell on Jonah.
He was thrown into the sea, the storm calmed down, and a large fish, popularly referred to as a whale, swallowed up Jonah into its belly, where he remained for three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to G-d and was saved when the fish spat him out on the shore.
Understanding that he had been punished for not going to Nineveh, Jonah followed HaShem's command, and the people of Nineveh repented and were saved from destruction.
The front of the coin shows Jonah with outstretched arms in the belly of the fish, and the flip side includes the inscription, "Jonah in the belly of the fish, Jonah 1:17," in Hebrew and English. Below the denomination of the coin – one, two and ten shekels.
In the first round of the competition, the Israeli coin was picked as the winner in the most artistic coin category, and in the second round it was chosen as the coin of the year from among the 10 category winning coins.
The competition's organizers congratulated the Bank of Israel on the selection, saying that the design's "simplicity speaks volumes and invokes a little bit of wonder."
The "Jonah in the Belly of the Fish" coin is the sixteenth commemorative coin in the Biblical Art series issued by the Bank of Israel. The series has included coins such as, "Elijah in the Whirlwind", "Samson and the Lion" and "And the Waters Were Divided.”
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Not my cup of tea design wise yet I congratulate the bank of Israel for this milestone.
The coin was chosen as the best among 95 coins, which had been judged in over 10 categories, including best silver coin, most popular, best contemporary event, most historically significant, best gold coin, most artistic, best trade, most innovative, and most inspirational coin.
The selection was made by a panel of judges who are experts in the field, including writers, editors, and members of the American Numismatic Association.
Jonah the Prophet was requested by G-d to warn the city of Nineveh to repent for their sins or their city would be destroyed. Jonah fled from his mission by boarding a ship bound for Tarshish. When a violent storm began, the ship crew cast lots to determine who was responsible, and the lot fell on Jonah.
He was thrown into the sea, the storm calmed down, and a large fish, popularly referred to as a whale, swallowed up Jonah into its belly, where he remained for three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to G-d and was saved when the fish spat him out on the shore.
Understanding that he had been punished for not going to Nineveh, Jonah followed HaShem's command, and the people of Nineveh repented and were saved from destruction.
The front of the coin shows Jonah with outstretched arms in the belly of the fish, and the flip side includes the inscription, "Jonah in the belly of the fish, Jonah 1:17," in Hebrew and English. Below the denomination of the coin – one, two and ten shekels.
In the first round of the competition, the Israeli coin was picked as the winner in the most artistic coin category, and in the second round it was chosen as the coin of the year from among the 10 category winning coins.
The competition's organizers congratulated the Bank of Israel on the selection, saying that the design's "simplicity speaks volumes and invokes a little bit of wonder."
The "Jonah in the Belly of the Fish" coin is the sixteenth commemorative coin in the Biblical Art series issued by the Bank of Israel. The series has included coins such as, "Elijah in the Whirlwind", "Samson and the Lion" and "And the Waters Were Divided.”
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Not my cup of tea design wise yet I congratulate the bank of Israel for this milestone.
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Comments
That "coin of the year" award, is more politics than truly the best design that wins, a bit like the Eurovision song contest. I remember a Greek 1988 50 drachmai coin that had also won that competition, and it wasn't an ugly coin, but I could have easily picked 10 better coins minted that same year, in my own personal opinion.
Anyway, congrats to the new sheqalim. The obverse in particular is very nice, I always prefer minimalistic designs to heavy ones,with practically no empty field left at all, such as some talers, or the modern gold bullion ones from Austria, that seem however to have a great appeal to a lot of collectors. In that sense, I see why it's not your cup of tea Zohar.
What I find particularly sad, is that the artist's name does not appear in the entire article as if it were the Bank of Israel who designed it. I wouldn't be surprised if the artist were a female, judging by the curves and the overall harmony of it.
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I do, however, think that some of the coinage designs from the past is decent.
Dimitri - the artists were male - "The winning coin was designed by Jerusalem's Gideon Keich (obverse) and Moshav Beit Gamiel's Aharon Shevo (reverse)" - Bank Of Israel Link
Taler Custom Set
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(Just think of city streets clogged with a hundred thousand horses each generating 15 lbs of manure every day...)
<< <i>This isn't the most "artistic" coin imo BUT I can't think of another coin that so powerfully portrays terror in the soul of the person depicted. That and its integration into the circle of the coin makes for an award-winning coin. >>
Powerfully portrays terror ? All in the eye of the beholder no doubt , the character on the coin could be seen just as easily as worshipping the whale.
<< <i> the character on the coin could be seen just as easily as worshipping the whale. >>
Don't see that. If the mouth was closed instead of wide-open screaming I'd agree with you.
(Just think of city streets clogged with a hundred thousand horses each generating 15 lbs of manure every day...)
<< <i>I do have a set in my sigline (early statehood) which mimic the judea/biblical coinage in the Prutah series. Subsequent issues were dissapointing in my view.
Dimitri - the artists were male - "The winning coin was designed by Jerusalem's Gideon Keich (obverse) and Moshav Beit Gamiel's Aharon Shevo (reverse)" - Bank Of Israel Link >>
Thank you Zohar.
I see the concencus is negative, as usual with new coins. But guys, it's a really pretty minimal obverse with a decent reverse, perfectly minted! Sometimes collectors, are the hardest of all to accept change, even if formulated by new talented artists.
I like it a lot. And I don't want my coins to look 200 years later, as if we were copying 150 year old designs, but that we left something nice of our own.
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I could probably have come up with something better, and I'm not an artist! It's uninspired, it looks like a wave with a tail, the design of Jonah looks like a Saturday morning cartoon, the total lack of any water conceptual design makes it appear the whale is flying through space, and the scaling is awful. It looks like the whale couldn't eat Jonah, because the whale is only a couple of feet bigger than he is- surely not large enough to swallow a full grown man!
What I would have done, was have a depiction of waves, with Jonah in a small boat, with a giant whale that took up most of the design facing, with it's mouth open desending on Jonah in the boat, and the tail flipped up and off to the side, but small, to make it appear the whale was large and quite long and the tail was some distance back. I'm not sure if whales have teeth, but that would truly sybolize some terror to me.
I would love to be able to see the other designs this beat. If this was truly the best of the bunch, then that's just more sad than anything else.
krause publications
<< <i>I couldn't get my head around this beating out 95 other coins , it in fact didn't. Neither is it "coin of the year" , it won the most artistic catagory somehow beating out 9 other nominees. It does say as much in the OP but in words that can easily..lol..misunderstood.
krause publications >>
Yeah, they picked an odd way to word that. I see where the confusion is.
Even so, most artistic?
Looking at Gold Clause's post and then the OP pic illustrates more than any words i can string together.
<< <i>Art i guess is one of those areas where one can get away with just about anything , one man's graffitti is another man's masterpiece as the infamous 'Banksy" has demonstrated much to his own benefit.
Looking at Gold Clause's post and then the OP pic illustrates more than any words i can string together. >>
I was just thinking after I posted.... I recently visited the Museum of Modern Art, and left there thinking how artistic talent has declined over the last hundred years. But that was my own impression, and I concede to the experts that they must surely know what they're doing. There was a good deal of fine art on display, and then some things that just don't make sense to me how they made the cut.
I guess it's one of those things that some people get, and some don't. In this case, I just don't.
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I was just thinking after I posted.... I recently visited the Museum of Modern Art, and left there thinking how artistic talent has declined over the last hundred years. But that was my own impression, and I concede to the experts that they must surely know what they're doing. There was a good deal of fine art on display, and then some things that just don't make sense to me how they made the cut.
I guess it's one of those things that some people get, and some don't. In this case, I just don't. >>
I don't get it either but I really wonder if it's an Emperor-has-no-clothes issue. Do people who see a painting that looks like any 3 year old could have done, really think to themselves "now THIS is ART!". Somehow, I don't think so.
More likely they think "All these people standing here think this is great art. Maybe I'm just not as sophisticated as they are, so I'll defer to them and agree that it's great art."
Very similar to my thoughts on toned coins. Someone will post a picture of a toned coin that looks like it was just recovered from a sewer. Inevitably, many people will post what a "monster" it is, and how great it looks. Does everyone really think that, or do they just think everyone else thinks that?
The Emperor has no clothes.
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I was just thinking after I posted.... I recently visited the Museum of Modern Art, and left there thinking how artistic talent has declined over the last hundred years. But that was my own impression, and I concede to the experts that they must surely know what they're doing. There was a good deal of fine art on display, and then some things that just don't make sense to me how they made the cut.
I guess it's one of those things that some people get, and some don't. In this case, I just don't. >>
I don't get it either but I really wonder if it's an Emperor-has-no-clothes issue. Do people who see a painting that looks like any 3 year old could have done, really think to themselves "now THIS is ART!". Somehow, I don't think so.
More likely they think "All these people standing here think this is great art. Maybe I'm just not as sophisticated as they are, so I'll defer to them and agree that it's great art."
Very similar to my thoughts on toned coins. Someone will post a picture of a toned coin that looks like it was just recovered from a sewer. Inevitably, many people will post what a "monster" it is, and how great it looks. Does everyone really think that, or do they just think everyone else thinks that?
The Emperor has no clothes. >>
I guess my reason for liking something is it's appeal in my own mind, not what is expected of me or what others think. That was my problem with the museum, as I walked through a room empty except for a floor covered with silver-wrapped candy, I think to myself what a shame it was that I just dropped $50 to visit this place. In defense of the museum though, they had a couple of Van Gogh paintings on display, which were quite a thrill to see in person.
I can see a great diversity in people's attractions to coins. To each his own, of course. I can imagine that someone finds my own collection boring or uninspiring, but it's my thing and I enjoy it. But when the artistic designs are given awards as in the case of the Jonah coin, I have to wonder what they were seeing that I must have missed.
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I was just thinking after I posted.... I recently visited the Museum of Modern Art, and left there thinking how artistic talent has declined over the last hundred years. But that was my own impression, and I concede to the experts that they must surely know what they're doing. There was a good deal of fine art on display, and then some things that just don't make sense to me how they made the cut.
I guess it's one of those things that some people get, and some don't. In this case, I just don't. >>
I don't get it either but I really wonder if it's an Emperor-has-no-clothes issue. Do people who see a painting that looks like any 3 year old could have done, really think to themselves "now THIS is ART!". Somehow, I don't think so.
More likely they think "All these people standing here think this is great art. Maybe I'm just not as sophisticated as they are, so I'll defer to them and agree that it's great art."
Very similar to my thoughts on toned coins. Someone will post a picture of a toned coin that looks like it was just recovered from a sewer. Inevitably, many people will post what a "monster" it is, and how great it looks. Does everyone really think that, or do they just think everyone else thinks that?
The Emperor has no clothes. >>
Hammer..meet Nail , i think you are spot on with that one , we see a lot of that on other forums not a million pixels from here. I particularly enjoy the "guess the grade" threads where after the grades revealed 2 dozen experts come out the woodwork with opinion that is exactly right lol same with the fake threads , once a recoqnised expert on the series comments the replies flood in with authoritive declarations mirroring the one guy who actually knows something.
With art ..who knows..i'm sure we've all seen the crap that wins awards , even Warhol was rubbish yet his doodles bring big bucks.
<< <i>With no disrespect to anybody, I always found that modern Israeli coins were among the ugliest that were minted. >>
But at least this one falls into the "cool-ugly" category, in my opinion.
<< <i>It looks very cartoony >>
The Israeli coins always seem pretty starkly modern. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just the way they are, I suppose.
I've also noticed that most Holocaust memorial sculpture seems to be similarly stark, modern, and quite ugly. But the Holocaust itself was stark, modern, and as ugly as anything can get, so in that case I do think it's appropriate.