Musicians On Coins [post Examples]

1975 G Germany - Federal Republic
5 Deutsche Mark Albert Schweitzer.

Someone not well known as a musician, but quite a prolific composer in his youth, was King Henry VIII of England. He could play several instruments and a contemporary picture survives of him playing a harp. A manuscript known as 'The Henry VIII Songbook' contains 20 songs and 13 instrumental pieces ascribed to him. For centuries the English folk song 'Greensleeves' has also been attributed to him, although there is no proof of this.

Henry VIII on a 16th-century half-groat:

Henry VIII commemorated on a 2009 £5 coin:

Ahmet Adnan Saygun (1907-1991), Turkey, 50000 Lira.

1970, 5 Mark, Germany (BRD).
Ludwig von Beethoven Commemorative.

Germany, 1984, 5 Mark.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy commemorative.

Germany, 2001, 10 Mark.
Albert Gustav Lortzing commemorative.



Germany, 2013, 10 Euro.
Richard Wagner commemorative.



My collection of composers is coming nicely along. The German subsection is almost complete.

Great coin, Dorado. Never seen that coin before. I only knew of the 1932 2 Schilling Haydn commemorative.

I realize that muddler recently posted his attractive example of the 1936 Cincinnati Music Center 50th Anniversary half dollar in this thread, but I wanted to add a bit of associated historical background on the issue for those who might be interested. (It's what I do, after all!)

I'll leave discussion of the controversies associated with the coin to my other posts about the Cincinnati half dollar (links below via Commems Collection,, and focus here on the design of the coin's obverse. It's that side of the coin that presents a right-facing, portrait of Stephen Collins Foster, a prolific composer/songwriter that has been referred to as "the Father of American Music." He wrote over 200 songs during his brief lifetime - he was born on July 4, 1826 and died on January 13, 1864 at the young age of 37; some say he accidentally cut/wounded himself after a fall, others believe it was an act of suicide.

Stephen Collins Foster, Circa 1850s

(Image Credit: Stephen Collins Foster: A Biography, Harold Vincent Milligan, G. Schrimer: New York, NY; 1920. Public Domain.)

In addition to his talents as a composer, Foster also played the clarinet, flute, guitar, banjo and piano (learning all at a young age), with a particular talent for the flute.

In his biography of the composer, Milligan wrote,

"Stephen Foster occupies a unique position in the history of music, not only of this country, but of the world. No other single individual produced so many of those songs which are called "f olk-songs," by whIch is meant songs that so perfectly express the mood and spirit of the people that they become part of the life of all the "folk" and speak as the voice, not of an individual, but of all. So completely do the "folk" absorb these songs and adapt them to their own uses, that the individuality and frequently even the name of the originator is completely lost, thus giving rise to the erroneous idea that a "folk-song" is a song created not by an individual but by a community."

Among Collins' most popular and enduring "folk" songs are:

- "Old Folks at Home" (aka "Swanee River") (the State Song of Florida)
- "My Old Kentucky Home" (the State Song of Kentucky)
- "Oh! Susanna"
- "Beautiful Dreamer"
- "Camptown Races" and
- "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"



For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including more on the history of the controversy surrounding the Cincinnati half dollar, see: Commems Collection.