Female Representations on Coins

[Triggersmob]

Just wondering how many different countries use a female representation of their country, on their coinage.

Which ones can you think of? Pictures would be nice too.

I'll start with Britannia from Great Britain.


Liberty from USA.


Marianne from France.

[Goldseeker]

Here is a couple from Aussie:

[Triggersmob]

Here is a couple from Aussie:

[keldaw]

nice pic bruce ..     ,, kel ,,

[Triggersmob]

A couple more.

These two don't have a name, but are both known as "Effigy of the Republic".

This one from Portugal.


and one from Brazil.

[markn]

Here's the jubilee head Queen Victoria.

[markn]

Here's Britannia on a 1929B Trade Dollar



And here's a "Native Princess" on a Dominican Republic Peso of 1952.

[Mister T]

I'm partial to the British Edward VII florin:




Also, the South African shilling:

[Sapyx]

The American "Liberty" isn't really a personification of the country itself; it's a personification of liberty. Marianne from France has evolved into a personification of France, but started out as a syncretistic personification of liberty and reason.

The woman on the South African shilling is likewise an evolved personification, although she is not a personification of South Africa as a whole. This coin actually depicts Spes, the Roman personification of Hope - and is therefore a symbol of the Cape Colony, built around the Cape of Good Hope. You can see her also on the South African halfcrown and on the old flag for the British-ruled Union of South Africa, in the top-left quadrant of the shield, representing Cape Colony as one of the four components of the Union - the others, clockwise, being Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State.

Personifications of countries are an ancient concept, dating right back to the Roman series and beyond. On Roman coins, personifications of countries and provinces are always female because country and province names, in the Latin language, are always feminine gender. Indeed, the figure of Britannia used until recently on British coins can be traced directly to the appearance of Britannia on Roman coins.

Another country that routinely uses female personifications is Italy. Italia, appearing on the coinage of the Italian Republic and on some coins from the monarchy period too, such as on this coin of Italian Eritrea - this particular rendering of Italia was actually copied off an old personification of Venice off a Venetian coin from the late 1700s.

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[Triggersmob]

Thanks for the info Sap.
Another one that comes to mind is Germania, but I don't have any coins with her on. Any one have any pics?

[Sapyx]

The traditional rendering of Germania appears on banknotes and notgeld encased-postage-stamps, but not coins. On the old German 50 pfennig, we see a woman planting an oak tree; the tree represents Germany but the woman represents the post-war reconstruction efforts, rather than Germany proper. In German she was known as the "Baumpflanzerin" (tree-planteress). The artist, who used his pregnant wife as the model, wished to memorialize the efforts of the Trümmerfrauen (rubble-women) who were largely responsible for rebuilding the bombed-out cities of Germany after the war.

[czark]

Really like the design on the 1929B. Thanks for sharing these.

[Goldseeker]

What about girls, (females), on Aussie coins.....?

[Triggersmob]

What about girls, (females), on Aussie coins.....?

Are the Kangaroo and Emu females?

[JeffH]

Victoria 2001 50¢ and 2003 Womens Suffrage Dollar are two that spring immediately to mind.