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| L’île d’Héliopolis |
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After completing
Nichtsburg
et Zilchstadt coin, Erik V. McCrea decided to design a new coin. As an
English teacher he loves poetry, therefore the design of L’île d’Héliopolis
reflects the poetry aspects on his coin. Below are the detail mentioned by
him regarding his fascinating coin.
The L’île d’Héliopolis coins are also based on my poetry. For
years, I have been mesmerized by solar imagery and symbolism. It is a theme
to which I return every now and again, and it never seems to lose its
vitality and freshness. For each of these coins, I have taken fragments from
some of those poems, and pieced them together like a collage. |
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| The coin is dated 2004, is 39mm in diameter, and 3mm thick. It was minted by the Northwest Territorial Mint, 50 pieces in copper and 5 pieces in silver. These coins are encapsulated. | |
| Erik V. McCrea has decided to go further with a new design of L’île d’Héliopolis as 2006 3 Çoles Isleños: Essentially, the soulful gist of this coin is wholly in lockstep with the heliocentric leitmotif of its forerunner. Though an isleño may be a native/inhabitant of an island, the word can also be defined as: of, relating to, pertaining to, or befitting an isle. The obverse of this piece is emblazoned with an insignia whose perfectly balanced decorativeness is filled with symbolic significance. It is an age-old representation of the sun, inherent to the Zia/Tsia Pueblo, and which adorns the flag of New Mexico. According to their spiritual lore, riches were bestowed upon them by the “Giver of All Good Gifts” in orderly groups of four. This hallowed number is divinely embodied in the main directions of the earth, the seasons of the year, the segments of the day (sunrise/morning/dawn, noon/daylight, sunset/evening/dusk, night/darkness) and the stages/divisions of life itself (childhood/infancy, youth, adulthood, old age). All of these blessed bequests correspond to 16 linear rays which radiate from the center of a circle. These elements are everlastingly bound together at their bases by the orb, which epitomizes existence and love, both of which are without beginning or ending. Moreover, the tribe believes that in this great fellowship/alliance of all things, each person bears 4 sacred responsibilities/obligations: to develop a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of one's family/people. On the reverse of the coin, assisting its attainment of a full-fledged thematic denouement, are three Sun parakeets (Aratinga solstitialis in the taxonomy of Linnaeus; and in Portuguese, because this bird is indigenous to Brasil, Jandaia-sol). It is pleasant to imagine them as zoomorphic aspects, earthly manifestations of the omniscient sun, who frequents our world by adopting a sprightly animal form; who dons this lively guise and becomes inconspicuous by blending in with the tropical background; who, no longer hindered by the astounding distance of space, uses a feathery façade to gain sound, experiential insights while in our midst. | |
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| The coin is dated 2006, is 36mm in diameter, and 3mm thick. It was minted by Pressed Metal Products, in a run of 54 copper and 11 silver (plus 2 pre-production samples: one in copper-nickel and one in brass). | |
| It seems so natural that the birds and the branch are coated with Silver as someone having magic has turned them to Silver. When I asked Erik about his Héliopolis silver coin, on how deeply focused, amazingly and beautifully it is created, he replied, "I am humbled! I too, think the mint did a great job with the coin, which was a relief for me. The first engraver they assigned to the job was not doing a very good job with the birds. Maybe he was an intern or a trainee, but his birds did not look very natural. The texture of their feathers looked like wicker baskets, not feathers. But then they assigned the task to another engraver, who did a magnificent job." I myself appreciated Pressed Metal Products for making an excellent piece of art. | |
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| Erik V. McCrea has decided to go further with a new design, this time using glass, according to him: The Medio Çol was crafted by Mr. David Alan (http://www.glassbyda.com/). After receiving my designs, Mr. Alan sent me an e-mail: “Looking over what you're asking me to do…it is not an easy piece to do! I did not fully understand the scope until this week. I will admit that it will be a VERY UNIQUE Piece and I believe I can pull it off.” He predicted that they would be “a pain to do” because “Each piece is hand done, there is no machine to do the job.” Nevertheless, he was confident they would ultimately look beautiful. As it turns out, Mr. Alan was absolutely correct in this prediction. Right after he “blasted the first Sample”, he remarked: “It is Awesome…without a doubt…The degree of difficulty is also beyond belief. But it will be worth it.” When I finally saw the first three “Sample Proofs”, I immediately realized that the results were going to be clearly (no pun intended) amazing. Mr. Alan’s craftsmanship was stunning. That was crystal clear. I must admit, however, that I was initially taken aback: the pieces did not match what I had envisioned and they did not adhere to the basic simplicity of my concept. They were experimental in nature and they differed markedly from how I designed the coin. Mr. Alan had interpreted my drawings in ways I simply could not have foreseen. He sandblasted the three samples so that they could be viewed from one side only. In other words, he made them so that all the text could be read by simply looking at the obverse. Therefore, there would be no need to “flip” the coin in order to view the reverse (all the text on that side would be backwards). There would be no reason to gaze at the “back” of the coin (except to admire the frosting technique up-close, out of curiosity), just like there is almost no aesthetic purpose to look at the back of a painting or the back of a decorative tile. All the “important” information on the coin (country name, denomination, year of issue) would be legible solely from the “front” side (the primary side), making the unreadable “back” side of the coin completely irrelevant. This defies the one of the purposes of a “coin”, which is supposed to have two “useful” sides, two functional sides. Typically, BOTH sides of a coin convey crucial information. Both sides are of equal importance. Therefore, I attempted to emulate this in my design so that the viewer would have to flip from one side to the other in order to “experience” the whole coin. The way I designed the coin, the phrase “L'île d'Héliopolis” is supposed to be legible left-to-right on the obverse (it appears backwards when the coin is flipped), and the phrase “Medio Çol” is supposed to be legible left-to-right on the reverse (it also appears backwards when viewed from the opposite side). This way, the coin absolutely has to be seen from the front AND from the back. Both sides are vital. Both sides contain pertinent/useful information. Both sides of the coin are integral to the whole. | |
| Mr. Alan produced a total of 25 glass medallions (plus 5 pre-production samples). Each one is 49mm in diameter, and 6mm thick. | |
| I got all these coins directly from Erik V. McCrea. You can also email him at evm111@hotmail.com or visit his website at: http://erikmccrea.tripod.com/heliopolis.html for more information. | |
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| In closing,
I (Erik V.
McCrea) felt that it would be
fitting to herein include my unabridged compilation of epigraphs. I have
garnered these beautiful literary quotes over the years, and I intend to
include them in a published anthology of all my sun-themed poetry. Enjoy!
If
the eye were not sun-like, I
am Azatiwatas, Shadows
are long and dark before me. Opposite
me laughs the city newly made: Humor
is an out-of-doors virtue. The
world sighs not; she sounds a song Sun
of being, Prince and Master! The
earth is mostly just a boneyard. O
what made fatuous sunbeams toil The
sun itself is but the dark simulacrum, Praise
to thee, my Lord, for all thy creatures, The
cheeks of our Saxon maidens the
rounded Everyone
knows that in dreams one never sees the sun, The
sun never repents of the good he does, How
I shall freeze after all this sun! The
sun is the blanket of the poor. Mexican saying
There
is nothing so destructive for spoken words The
sun never sets without fresh news. Xhosa proverb
Goodness
comes out of people who bask in the sun. The
sun-dial counts only the bright hours. German
proverb
During
summer days I suffer from continued hunger, I
fall back dazzled at beholding myself all rosy red, He
was like a cock who thought the sun He
had been born to the sun. I
have a horror of sunsets, The
Sun is a mass of fiery stone, This
was my country and it may yet be, Men
shut their doors against a setting sun. Timon of
Athens
Follow
thy fair sun, unhappy shadow. Thomas Campion
Dazzling
and tremendous how quick the sunrise would kill me, And
if we don't want our glory to be, Whatever
may be in my mind, And
when you conceal me Joy
is a light which devours itself, inexhaustibly; When
the sun comes out, Even
the smallest of creatures Two
bad cheers for the small sun. Thomas Merton
Some
folks is born wid they feet on de sun The
sun, which passeth through pollutions Thus
the dream was transformed into a nightmare. But
nothing we can ever do is diametric to the sun. John
Hay
It
is good enough just to sit still We
are pieces of the sun, We
really know our worth, Some
painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; He
has an experience in which it appears to him But
every sun sets, If
not to the sun, As
on the day that brought thee to this earth |
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