I was telling my wife about collecting coins by theme (birds,dragons, horses, etc), and she asked me if there were any coins with rats or mice on them. Anyone know of any? Any rodents besides the Canadian Beaver? I wonder if one could assemble a vermin-themed collection.
Yes, and very old from Sarum in Wiltshire dated 1652... Of estimated 20.000 token issuers in 17th century, this is the only known token issued by an individual with a then not uncommon profession, that being a rat killer, the 17th century equivalent of an exterminator. Like many other tokens, George Godfrey's little piece here has an emblem of his profession - that being of a rat! But this is the only piece known with an image of a rat, and the only piece known that was issued by someone in the profession of being a rat killer. The extermination of vermin was very important, as it involved health and well being. Indeed, when London burned in 1666 the resultant deaths of hundreds of thousands of rats saw the demise of the annual plague outbreaks.
Great farthing! A mouse or rat appears as a subsidiary symbol on ancient coins of Metapontion and Rhodes. A desert mouse also appears on rare Islamic fulus of the Umayyad dynasty.
Here's some on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/San-Marino-...3598805?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item3a7fe1aa55 http://www.ebay.com/itm/SOMALIA-10-...8820210?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item4d0787c572 http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-Somali...5786601?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item1c3277a6e9
Also in a supporting role is the rat under the horses on a Roman Republican denarius of Ti. Quinctius, 112-111 BC. http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?search=similar:669514
If you look for countries that commemorate Chinese zodiac, rat / mouse is one of the animals that appear on them. Here's a list of countries that issue Chinese zodiac related coins: Canada Australia France Russia Singapore China Ukraine There might be more but those are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.
There are a few people that collect the older tokens from the 1970s and have driven the prices up - back then they put the city name of where the restaurant was located - which is the big draw. If only I had saved my big rat tokens from then.
