Though it has been produced for well over two centuries and in several countries, every example bears an 18th-century date. It may once have influenced an important economic decision made by one large nation, and it is thought that a certain "provocative" quality has contributed to its continuing popularity elsewhere. What is it, and what symbol associated with a saint appears on it?

toughynutter

Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted as part of the ne french constitution and effect taxation among other econmic decision. all copies of course bear the date 1789 it is adorn with a bunch of symbols " The basic form is biblical in inspiration: the well-known image of the two tablets of the law (the Ten Commandments) brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai. The implication is that the 17 rights of man parallel (or perhaps even supersede) the Judaeo-Christian decalogue. (In the preamble to the Declaration God is referred to as ‘the Supreme Being’, the divine creator of the universe postulated by Enlightenment deists.) Other imagery is classical, drawn from motifs common in ancient republican Rome: the central pike (the weapon of the free citizen), surmounted by the Phrygian cap, or legendary red cap of liberty, associated with the freed slave; enveloping the pike, the fasces (upright sticks, bound together in a bundle, carried before the ‘lictors’ or senior magistrates and symbolizing solidarity and civic virtue); garlands of oak leaves, symbolizing victory. Other symbols include a chain with a broken fetter, symbolizing emancipation from bondage; an equilateral triangle, symbolizing equality; and the all-seeing eye of Providence (a masonic symbol). The revolutionaries thus drew on appropriate aspects of classical and religious imagery, familiar under the Old Regime, and adapted them to a new ideology after 1789." http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=90118 chains and fetter are symbols of Saint Leonard of Noblac patron saint of political prisoners, imprisoned people, prisoners of war, and captives, women in labor, as well as horses "depicted as an abbot holding chains, fetters or locks, or manacles." http://en.wikiped Mar 14 07, 9:34 PM

queproblema

I was thinking something more like perfume. Mar 14 07, 9:53 PM

lanfranco

Interesting, but I'm afraid neither answer is correct. Focus on the word "economic." And what sort of object that most of us handle daily generally bears a date? Mar 15 07, 6:18 AM

Baloo55th

Sounds like the Maria Theres Thaler, originally minted in Austria in 1780. Has also been minted in Rome, Paris, London, Brussels, Mumbai (although it was Bombay then), Birmingham, Vienna, Prague, Leningrad, Milan, Venice and Florence. The original was minted at Gunzberg. Over 800 million are estimated to have been produced. Here's a reference to some interesting info on coins - dollars in particular, but what I've put above is not off the net, sorry. http://www.columnarios.com/twobits.htm Mar 15 07, 9:41 AM

Baloo55th

Forgot the saint - that's the crown of St Stephen of Hungary (with the bent cross on top). Right in the middle. I suppose that Maria Theresa's dress could be considered provocative. It is a bit off the shoulder... http://ecom.uscoins.com/images%5Cworldsilver%5Cturisa.jpg It is still minted, and is in use in places where they can't trust the official local money - or where there may be no official local money as is probably the case in Somalia, and up to the 1930s was the case in Ethopia. Mar 15 07, 9:50 AM

lanfranco

Yes, indeed, Baloo, and if I had one of these silver coins, I'd hand it over to you. I was actually looking for the little "saltire," or St. Andrew's Cross, that appears after the 1780 on the thaler, but the crown of St. Stephen will do. Mar 15 07, 11:41 AM

Baloo55th

I just took it to be an unexplained X.... I knew St Stephen's Crown would be in there somewhere, though. Mar 15 07, 2:31 PM