[MississippiMasterpiece]

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[AntiGuv]

Is it just my dirty mind, or does that UFO look 'well hung'?

[Caesar Soze]

Never mind the UFO; why does it have a penis?

[ruiner]

I'm glad i'm no the only one who noticed. It really does look like a penis flying around on a wheel.

Not exactly what I'd consider "opportune!"

[mewzilla]

Looks like a mushroom to me.

[Vinnie]

A Jewish UFO. Who'd a thunk.

[samtheman]

It was made in the 1680s in France

Despite what we think of the French (mostly justified), 1680s France was not a pre-literate society.

If this toy-coin (made for games) was really depicting a flying-saucer witnessed at the time, we would have to believe the following scenario:

A citizen of France witnesses a flying saucer and says to himself, "how can I best tell the world about this event... I know! I'll put it on a toy coin!"

Pardon my skepticism, but, yeah, right.

[small voice in the wilderness]

No wonder we can't communicate with the aliens. We've been looking for the Mothership...

[nuconvert]

"sometimes used as a money substitute for playing games"

That says a lot

[BluH2o]

My theory ... the artists idea of a seedling floating thru the air (like a dandelion) touching down on fertile soil ... it rains and voila ... we have flowers. Pretty good, huh?

[BluH2o]

My theory ... the artists idea of a seedling floating thru the air (like a dandelion) touching down on fertile soil ... it rains and voila ... we have flowers. Pretty good, huh?

[MinuteGal]

Seeing that "time" was mentioned in the inscription, maybe this was an artistic rendition of a garden sundial and the other side was a hint to the rain god to take good care of the petunias.

Leni

[evolved_rage]

The coin must have been designed by an ancestor of Larry Flynt.

[Popman]

A flying ballon.

[floridarolf]

If it was meant to be a wheel the axle wouldn't sit in such an unatural angle an the wheel. I think it's a flying saucer with activated tractor beam. You can even make out the antigravity propulsion on it's lower side and the portholes on its side. Fascinating.

[muawiyah]

Peyote Buds!

Although the artist seems to have been using samples that were very dry. See: http://www.cahuinadencul.com.ar/fotos/super_colonia_peyote10.jpg as an example.

You can do a www.google.com search and find other similar images including stylized "plants" the artist presumed the buds must have come from. After all, in the 1700s American cactus plants were just becoming familiar to Europeans.

[Socratic]

It looks like the good fortune from the sky, as signified by the falling rain on the opposite side, is a roulette wheel and the "penis" is a pointer aimed at the fortunate ground (thus it being suspended upside down). Bye-bye ET.

[Captain Rhino]

Ezekiel is said (by UFO believers of the Van Daniken (remember him?) school) to have a description of a flying saucer. I did a search at a Bible search site:

http://bible.gospelcom.net/passage/?search=Ezekiel%201;&version=9;

But the describtion given in Ezekiel Chapter One (KJV)doesn't match the image on the coin:

14And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.


15Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.


16The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were A WHEEL IN THE MIDDLE OF A WHEEL. (My emphasis)


17When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.


18As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.


19And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.


20Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.


21When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.


22And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.


Artistic license always has to be considered in this matter. Painters and sculptors of those times were not adverse to creating images (like persons from @800 BC depicted wearing clothing, armor, and arms from the Renaissance period) to suit then current interpretations and tastes. Perhaps the engraver simply took the old phrase "wheel in a wheel" literally and omitted anything that "clouded the clarity of his artistic vision."

[Las Vegas Dave]

*OPI pings.


(*Of possible interest.)

[hflynn]

In another life I was in Paris in 1680. A man with 1 gigantic eye in the middle of his head walked up to me with this very same coin and asked me if I had change of a Hern.

[dennisw]

*Tree of Life* on the obverse with the UFO (daisy) on the master.