Beautiful Silver Shield Strikes From My Collection with Historic Meanings!

Have you ever held a roman soldier’s daily wage in your hand? How about a piece of a traitors blood money or even a shiny piece of pirate’s treasure? 

These three pieces of silver I would like to share with you today, in my opinion of course, are some of the most significant designs I own in regards to silvers history. They all hold a special place in my collection and act as a reminder of just how blessed I am to hold as much silver as I do in regards to the value of silver throughout history. I know for a fact my that the number of ounces in my collection, which is not all that large, and most of the other members in the silver community as well, would be large enough that people throughout most periods of history would have killed for it.

All of these coins are released by Chris Duane under the Silver Shield brand. His designs are usually only produced in mini (around 1000 or less) and micro (around 3000 - 10000) mintage runs but these coins were released to the public without COA’s so some of the mintage numbers are high (for a silver shield release although other mints do call 10,000 rare). The Pieces of Eight was my very first silver coin, I fell in love with the story behind the design and the art on the coin. But first let me start with the smallest silver coin in my collection :

Argyraspides - 2013 - 1/10th - BU - Public Release 36,750 mintage

This coin really resonates with me, what it represents reminds me of the crazy value of silver throughout history and just how ridiculously low the price is now. This is the only 1/10th ounce coin that silver shield has produced and its significance to history is in it’s size. In Roman times, 1/10th of an ounce of silver was considered to be fair pay for one day’s hard labour.

I have heard that the average days wage, at the moment around the world is around $2 a day. It you took silver to be $20 (hopefully soon, and beyond) then the average wage today is still 1/10th of an ounce of silver.

Consider that next time you order a few, or a few hundred ounces of silver, just how much wealth you are getting for your dollars. 

The design itself shows one of Alexander The Great’s Argyraspides (which translates to Silver Shield) soldier. These were the highest class of warrior and due to their vast experience (they tended to be a little older) they were greatly feared and respected. Their silver shield was a way of carrying their pay with them into battle.

Crucifixion - 2014 - 1/2 Ounce - BU - Public Release 7419 mintage

This Crucifixion strike is probably one of the most powerful ones I have seen, not only in the crucifixion scene it portrays but again, also in it’s size. This is the first (and only, I think) 1/2 ounce strike from Silver Shield. When Jesus was betrayed by Judas, the reward that Judas received was 30 1/2 ounce (15 ounces all up) Shekels. That is 30 of these pieces of silver and this was considered a reasonable amount in the day (imagine 1/10th ounce daily wages) but still a minuscule amount to betray the Son Of God. Again this really puts our personal stacks into perspective doesn’t it.

Pieces Of Eight - 2016 - 1 Ounce - BU - Gold Guild - Public Release >8000 mintage (I am not sure of final number)

Arrrrrhhhhh Pirates Bounty. Silver and gold Bullion. Don’t we all want to stumble upon that treasure chest of coins, buried on that remote deserted island!! Well this is as close as I have managed to come to that dream!

 According to The Silver Shield Guide, 

“This strike represents physically the deadly history of silver. Praedatum In Mundo translates into A Predatory World. This defines the struggle of man against nature to extract this precious metal and also a violent clash of civilisations to control the treasure o ft he world”

The coins shows the treacherous sky and ocean which claimed many men that went in search of treasure. It also has an ode to the Aztec Civilization with the border around the bottom. The coin itself was styled after the Spanish dollar or Eight Reales coin. It shows the twin pillars of Hercules with the Spanish motto ‘ PLVS VLTR ‘ or translated further beyond. 

What I love about this design is the Pieces Of Eight aspect. If you notice on the reverse, the eight points of the compass design have lines dividing them in the middle. If you were to split the coin down these lines you would end up with eight !/8th ounce pieces. As you can see in the design, each segment contains ‘1/8 oz .999AG’ indicating its weight and purity. Also if you were to flip that 1/8 segment to look at the obverse (front) you would see that each segment contains one of the eight unique colonial power swords. 

The thought and history in this coin is what has made it one of my favourite pieces. Although I have a few of these coins in silver, I still only own one old Guild version that I use for display.

I hope you enjoyed a look at some of these historically significant strikes from Silver Shield. Hopefully it helped put some more perspective on just how undervalued silver is at the moment and encourages you to stack some more. 

I am planning on delaying this post untill I can get some photo’s in the sunlight as it is night time here, but rest assured the photo’s in this post are my own. Stay tuned for more Silver Shield and Silver Gold and Steem related posts in the future.

If you would like to read some of my other silver related posts check these out.

My Introduction To The steemsilvergold Community

https://steemit.com/steemsilvergold/@silvernova/my-introduction-to-the-steemsilvergold-community-bringing-the-precious-metals-to-steemit

What Silver Stackers Bring To The Altcoin World

https://steemit.com/steemit/@silvernova/what-silver-stackers-bring-to-the-altcoin-world-optimism

My First Introduction About Silver (before steemsilvergold)

https://steemit.com/silver/@silvernova/there-s-always-a-silver-lining

@silvernova