Post Your Coins That Have A Pyramid

1954 Mexico - 20 Centavos

Thanks E&V .,

Thank you jbuck,

Great addition, Dearborn.

Trivia time: in case anyone might be wondering "how come all the ancients collectors haven't come on here and shown us ancient Egyptian coins with the pyramids on them", the answer is simple:

They don't exist.

Those Egyptian coins from 1984 that people were posting way back on pages 1 and 2 of this thread? Yeah, those were the very first time that the Egyptian pyramids were ever featured on Egyptian coins. Egyptian banknotes since the British Mandate featured pyramids, but never coins.

One might ponder why this might be the case. The answer seems to be that, by the time that coinage was invented and introduced to Egypt, the pyramids were already ancient and mysterious: half-forgotten, half-buried, crumbling ruins. Spectacular and awe-inspiring, to be sure, and well-known enough to make it to the number 1 spot on the list of Seven Wonders, but not something that Ptolemiac or Roman Egyptians could personally take credit for and thus not seen as something to brag about. When the Romans wanted to symbolize "we've captured Egypt" on their coins, they chose as the archetypical symbol of Egypt not the pyramids, but the Nile crocodile. And for the later Christian and Muslim rulers of Egypt, the pyramids again would have been seen as weird pagan relics unworthy of being bragged about. It wasn't until 1919 that "pyramids = Egypt" began to be symbolized on the money.

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this with us.

huh, I never gave it much thought, now I need to

Thanks @Sap for that wonderful info.