Obverse: Portrait
of Helios
Reverse: A Rose
The island nation of Rhodes was an
immensely successful commercial power of
the Aegean. They strategically sided
with Athens
but, when in jeopardy,
negotiated favorable surrenders to
Sparta,
Alexander the Great, and Demetrios
Poliorketes, allowing them to sustain at
least
some degree of independence based
on neutrality. Rhodes was named for the
rose,
depicted on the reverse of this
coin. A portrait of Helios, the sun god,
wearing a
crown of rays graces the
obverse. This image was based upon the
head of
the great statue of Helios,
better known as the Colossus of Rhodes,
one of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World. The Colossus memorialized the war
with
Demetrios Poliorketes. He
unsuccessfully attacked the city for
over a year,
around 305-304 B.C.
Eventually, a settlement was negotiated
and
Poliorketes abandoned his siege
towers constructed from valuable timbers
that
the Rhodeans in turn sold off for
shipbuilding. The proceeds from this
sale were
invested in the huge (105 ft.)
bronze statue of Helios standing at the
entrance
of the harbor. While the famous
statue served as a reminder of the
city's fortitude
during the siege and became
a tourist attraction, it only stood
until 227 B.C.
when it was toppled by an
earthquake.
How many hands have touched a coin in
your pocket or your purse? What eras
and lands have the coin traversed on its
journey
into our possession? As we
reach into our pockets to pull out some
change,
we rarely hesitate to think of
who touched the coin before us, or where
the
coin will venture to after us. More
than money, coins are a symbol of the
state that
struck them, of a specific time
and place, whether currency in the age
we live or
an artifact of a long
forgotten empire. This ancient coin is
more than
an artifact; it is a memorial
to the glories of Rhodes passed from the
hands
of civilization to civilization,
from generation to generation.
