From Tyre Lebanon to Rossville Georgia in 2300 Years

I have had a fascination with ancient Egypt ever since I can remember. There was a time when I could recite the names and reigning dates of each Pharaoh. I knew the dates of discovery of each important tomb uncovered in the Valley of the Kings. Now I've forgotten much of what I knew, and it's been years since I've read a book on Egyptian history, But I still never miss a documentary on television or any news articles about recent discoveries.

I always dreamed about going to Egypt and actually touching one of the pyramids of Giza, or the Sphinx, and maybe even buying some small artifact to bring home with me. Well, a trip to Egypt hasn't happened and probably never will. But I didn't have to go to Egypt to get and ancient relic.

I was 16 when I bought an Egyptian coin at Gimbels Department Store in 1956 with my second paycheck earned selling shoes during summer vacation. It cost $35 which was a lot of money at the time and why I needed two paychecks to do it. I kept it in a suede leather pouch in a dresser drawer when I left the house, but when I was home it was always in my pocket. I would take it out, hold and look at it and think about the people who made it and handled it all those many years ago, and what their lives might have been like. As I got older the coin spent less time in my pocket and more in the drawer. And after awhile I forgot about it unless I stumbled over it while looking for something else.

I didn't know much about the coin when I bought it. The certificate of authenticity said that the metal was bronze, and that the head of Zeus was represented on one side, with two eagles on a thunderbolt on the other. It took me awhile to make out Zeus's head. He is in profile, his facial features on the right. You can click on the photo for a larger view. The certificate also said that the coin was minted during the reign of Ptolemy II who ruled from 283 to 246 BC. Egypt's glory days were a thousand years past by then, but I didn't care; it was still an ancient Egyptian coin and predated Cleopatra and Marc Anthony by 200 years. 

I was interested in learning more about the coin, and in doing internet research discovered that there were four mints producing coins during Ptolemy's reign, but that only one of them, located in the city of Tyre, now in present day Lebanon made double eagle coins.

I had learned where and when the coin was made, but what still puzzled me was the indentation in the center of both sides of the coin. By a stroke of luck I learned that the holes resulted from a polishing process in the final stage of production. A tool very similar to a flat-bladed wood drill bit was used to polish the coin and remove any rough edges. The holes were made by the center index of the tool. 

When we moved to Peru in 2008 the coin went with us. Maribel had brought her jewelry with her but it occurred to me that she didn't have anything that looked Peruvian, so on a whim one day I sat down and designed a necklace and earrings that I thought sort of looked Peruvian. In the nearby town of Monsefu there are some excellent artisans working with gold and silver. And the cost of their work is ridiculously inexpensive compared to USA prices. So we took the design to one of them. Two weeks later the set was ready.

We were more than satisfied with his work. A week later when I came across the Egyptian coin again, I immediately thought of that silversmith. The coin deserved more than siting in a drawer. If we could incorporate it into a piece of jewelry it would see the light of day again, hopefully being appreciated by those who noticed it (and if they didn't notice it I would tell them!).

Two days later we were back at the silversmith, and this was the result.

We chose a copper setting and chain because we felt it matched better with the coin than gold or silver would have. Maribel wore it for awhile but gradually it became relegated to her jewelry box. It was too heavy for her to wear comfortably, and it swung clumsily with every movement. I felt like I was failing this coin and the people who had been a part of its 2,300 year history. Who knows what path it had traveled from Tyre to that Milwaukee department store, and how many locations it has seen, and how many people had transported it during during the trip? Since I've had it, it's been in six different towns. So what to do? 

I recently built a wall curio shelf, and we've decided that the coin belongs on that shelf. It took about a week to arrive at a design to hold the coin that we both liked.

The pyramid and base are wood, with the pyramid painted ivory to simulate the plaster covering on the original pyramids, and the base painted light brown to resemble sand. The reverse side of the coin is visible on the other side of the display. The engraved plate contains all the necessary information.

We know the coin has 2,300 years of history. We can't know about its distant future but as of this moment in time we feel that it's in a good setting and that we're doing our part as members of a chain of past and future guardians.