Have you ever looked at a coin and then got a deja-vu moment? Yes, there are numerous classic coins with similar designs (i.e. U.S. Seated Liberty & U.K. Seated Britannia). But aside from the famous ones, sometimes I come across one that's unexpected. When I received this 2020 Vermont ATB quarter, I recalled that I've seen "a girl planting something" in another coin. So I started to look for it among my hand-me-down collection. I found this one - 2009 Sacagawea Dollar ("Three Sisters"). But it wasn't the one I had in mind. So I kept looking. And I finally found it - in the last page of one of the albums I had to look though. 1982 German 50 Pfennig. I might even have a fourth one, but I stopped looking by then. LOL. Happy New Year everyone and remember to plant some good stuff wherever you go.
One of my favorite reasons for coin collecting is reading the stories behind the designs. Maybe you already know about the "three sisters" but if not, google it and I think you'll find it interesting.
WOWWW!!! The similarity is uncanny!!! Hahahaha. I know nothing about ancient coins but your post reminds me of something. I have a Greek coin with an owl on it (but it's a modern one from the '80's) and I noticed that a lot of the ancient Greek coins feature the same owl.
Many modern coin designs are based on ancient coins, I think the SBA was just a coincidence though. It's pretty cool!
Thanks for posting these pairs. I've got the one on the bottom right! Somewhere in one of the albums - I have to search again). But I seem to remember mine is 2-Lire, not 5. Maybe I'm wrong.
I actually don't have one unfortunately. The older Italian coins are beautiful though. BTW I know this is off topic, but your pfp cracks me up every time I see it.
I totally agree about Italian coins. Here's a quick sloppy shot of my 2-Lire piece with the same design as your L-5. Below it is another favorite of mine: 50-centesimi featuring Archangel Michael sheathing his sword. Vatican City.
Italian coins of the early 20th Century are quite underrated, especially when it comes to aesthetics.
It has always been quite common for countries to copy the designs of coins from other countries. And they'd copy more than just designs, they copy composition, weight, and fineness. In more than a few cases they would copy everything exactly, minting out and out counterfeits. For over 150 years the Russian govt. minted counterfeit Netherlands gold ducats. And they were so good that even the TPGs of today can't tell the real ones from the counterfeits most of the time. In fact the TPGs, and yes that includes NGC and PCGS, have slabbed thousands of Netherlands gold ducats as being genuine when they are actually Russian counterfeits. But most of the time countries were happy with copying the designs of the coins from other countries.
The most copied one I have seen is St George and the dragon. So many countries have had it at one time or another. First image is my Sovereign the others are from the web
Yes! How could I have forgotten about that particular design?! I even have a small Russian coin with St. George slaying the dragon but the dragon looks like a serpent.