Epidaurus—Greek Theatre, History of the Theatre series, Niue Island 2016, 7 Dollars, 3 oz, 50 mm, antique finish high relief coin with concave reverse, client: Mint of Gdansk, producer: Mint of Poland.
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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:
“The impressive design, seemingly perfectly suited to the shape of a coin.” AgAuNews
