Pegasus and pizza

[villa66]

I pulled a “Pegasus” 10-lire from my duplicates for my grand-daughter because it was the closest thing to a unicorn that I had. (Her ultimate compliment these days is to call someone a “rainbowy unicorn.”) While I was playing around I checked into my notebook entries on these coins….

 

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x: I have read that large‑size 10-lire pieces like this one dated 1949 were snapped up by the neighboring Swiss for use as the stuffing in buttons. (There seems to be a lot of confusion—and doubt—within the Italian numismatic community over the “buttons” business, but ‘50s fashion design and the negligible foreign exchange value of these pieces at the time don’t contradict the story.)  At any rate, the large-size 10-lire was quickly replaced by a smaller coin. This is another aluminum piece I much admire. Beautiful obverse Pegasus, and a good reverse depiction of the olive. The significance of that? Pizza of course. I was horrified(!) as a kid in the mid-‘60s when I learned the Italians used olive oil on their pizzas, but quickly learned that—much as I liked it—no American pizza could compare. Rimini and the octopi topping notwithstanding. (02)

 v.

[Scipio]

@villa66 I can't see the link between the olive tree branch and the pizza. On the Italian Rebublic early coins a lot of symbols were related with the agricolture, like the plough or the grape. Olive oil is a basic ingredient of the whole Italian (and mediterranean) cuisine.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Scipio

[okt]

The olive sprig also appears on Athen's coins, in the fifth and sixth century b.C.. The olive tree was sacred to Athena, and it also means peace.

[villa66]

Il 22/4/2020 alle 08:11, Scipio dice:

@villa66 I can't see the link between the olive tree branch and the pizza. .

@Scipio The link is only personal…just a memory I’ve attached to that coin so I won’t forget it. Of course there isn’t really much chance of that—to this 9-year-old boy raised on mass-market and fast-food American pizza, Italian pizza came as a bad shock. (And olive oil was a big part of it.) When I returned to the U.S. as a 12-year-old, however, I had that experience in reverse—I missed my Italian pizza something fierce. A half-century later I still do!

 

? v.

Edited April 25, 2020 by villa66

[villa66]

Il 22/4/2020 alle 15:24, okt dice:

The olive sprig also appears on Athen's coins, in the fifth and sixth century b.C.. The olive tree was sacred to Athena, and it also means peace.

On American coins too use olive branches as symbols of peace.  Very frequently, in fact. Gripped by the eagle of a 1921 Peace dollar...

 

Offered by the outstretched hand of Liberty on a 1917 quarter....

 

As a wreath on this 1856 cent////

 

Or as so often is seen, as on this 1877s quarter, paired with arrows--peace in the more important right claw, war in the less important left claw.....

 

And the use of the olive branch continues into the present day.

 

? v.

[Liutprand]

How can we forget our glorious 100 lire with the Italian Minerva next to an olive tree!

[Scipio]

5 ore fa, villa66 dice:

A half-century later I still do!

Then be back as soon as this virus disgrace ends and taste it again!?

[okt]

13 ore fa, villa66 dice:

As a wreath on this 1856 cent////

 

 

Isn't it a laurel wreath?

[Scipio]

It is

[villa66]

12 ore fa, okt dice:

Isn't it a laurel wreath?

Good call, okt—it’s definitely possible that these are laurel leaves, but… .“laurel wreath” is something of a catch-all in American English, and sometimes speaks more to general purpose rather than exact composition. So it seems that olive branches can be used for what can be called (perhaps sloppily) a “laurel wreath.”

 

I need to look at some old books! (And not just for this; today I read a description of what I always thought of as simply a "laurel wreath" on the Barber coins of 1892-1916 that said it was fashioned of olive branches.)

 

Nevertheless, whether the wreath is a laurel-leaf wreath or an olive-leaf wreath, the meaning I ascribed to it (Peace) is plainly wrong. Thanks for setting me straight. And thanks for sparking an evening’s worth of enjoyable reading.

 

Oh yes. The wreath should surely have 13 berries, and try as I might, I can only find 12 in the photo. Help, anyone?

 

? v.

 

[villa66]

Il 25/4/2020 alle 02:40, Liutprand dice:

How can we forget our glorious 100 lire with the Italian Minerva next to an olive tree!

I read today that some of the olive trees growing around the Med are many centuries old. Maybe it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. And I did love the big 100L as a kid in the mid- to late-'60s. One of them would buy 3 games of pinball--the old kind, with 5 balls that had to be manually loaded, and a gently-sloped deck.

 

? v.

[villa66]

Il 25/4/2020 alle 03:38, Scipio dice:

Then be back as soon as this virus disgrace ends and taste it again!?

A good idea!

 

? v.

[Liutprand]

43 minuti fa, villa66 dice:

I read today that some of the olive trees growing around the Med are many centuries old. Maybe it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. And I did love the big 100L as a kid in the mid- to late-'60s. One of them would buy 3 games of pinball--the old kind, with 5 balls that had to be manually loaded, and a gently-sloped deck.

 

? v.

long ago, what nostalgia!

[Scipio]

2 ore fa, villa66 dice:

some of the olive trees growing around the Med are many centuries old

some of them are thousands of years old...
http://www.ulivisecolaridipuglia.com/en/millenary-olive-trees/