Both ships no longer exist, so these designs are my subjective attempt to reconstruct their appearance. It is impossible to reproduce all the details of the ships in a small piece of metal, so I simplified all construction elements, including rigging.

“Queen Anne’s Revenge” was a flagship of the famous pirate Blackbeard. I draw the portrait of Blackbeard (on the bottom of the reverse) based on eighteenth-century engravings.

HMS Bounty is known for the revolt of the crew led by officer Fletcher Christian. We see his hypothetical portrait in the compass rose.

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I started working on this project in 2018 and the coin was originally going to have an amber insert. Finally, the design was finished in 2019 and the coin was refined with selective gilding. Great topic and finally something different from Roman or Greek gods!

On the reverse on the second plan we see the Alamut castle (my own hypothetical reconstruction of the fortress). On the rim the inscription “Nizaris ” in Arabic.

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The reverse of this coin was inspired by the painting “Jupiter and Thetis” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a famous French neo-classical painter. Unlike the painting there is a silhouette of Thetis at the foot of Jupiter. On the left, behind the god, we see a silhouette of Victory, shown not as Roman but as Greek goddess. It is the reconstruction of the famous Hellenistic sculpture of Nike: the Nike of Samothrace (also called the Winged Victory of Samothrace). The whole scene alludes then to the ancient Greek statue of Zeus at Olympia, the work of the famous sculptor Phidias: in his right hand the god of sky held a statue of Nike, personification of victory.

On the obverse: Temple of Jupiter Stator (Jupiter the stayer) according to engraving of the nineteenth century. Background pattern: mosaic of the 3rd century (Pergamon).

About this coin:

Mennica Gdańska / YouTube
“It’s clear that Jupiter has the potential to be a fine coin. We’re not expecting the relief to be quite as detailed and intricate as shown here.” AgAuNews

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The reverse design is my own reconstruction of Epidaurus theatre in the time of Greeks (not to be confused with the time of the Romans) with very scrupulous details like skene, proskenion, roof tiles (imbrex and tegula — an ancient Greek roof covering method) and sections of seats separated by horizontal walkways and vertical steps (theatron).

On the obverse: Sophocles and Aeschylus, fathers of Greek tragedy and Maenads dancing in Dionysus parade. The Dionysia was a festival in ancient Greece in honor of the Dionysus (god of wine, art and festivities), the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies.

The Great Dionysia took place in Athens, at the theater of Dionysus. At the very beginning of the work I wanted  to draw on the reverse this theater. Unfortunately the shape of the Athenian theatron was not as regular as that of Epidaurus and did not allow me to compose properly the architecture of this theater in the coin concavity. I changed the coin theme for purely aesthetic reasons.

About this coin:

Mint of Gdansk / YouTube

“The impressive design, seemingly perfectly suited to the shape of a coin.” AgAuNews