Here’s another WHAT IS IT? Contest, and this time I don’t know the answer! This coin/medal belonged to my Dad, and now I have it and don’t know its purpose or when or where it‘s from. I can’t find a satisfactory explanation of it online, nor can I find another precise image of it. The coin is 1 3/8” (35mm) in diameter and appears to be made of bronze. On the front is an image of a man riding a horse, in apparently Middle Ages garb, and around it it says: “HIC RHODUS HIC SALTA.” This is a Latin phrase from Aesop’s Fables, literally translated “Here is Rhodes, jump here!” or more understandably, “Prove what you can do, here and now.” On the back of the coin is an image of a sail ship and the words: “Norske Love.” It turns out that Norske Love was an actual Danish Norwegian warship in 1765. There is no other information on this coin/medal. Can anyone tell me what it is?
Wow! My dad had one too!!! Oh, must be because you're my brother! Ya'think?
ReplyDeleteThis is not a coin, it's a medal. These were sometimes given to seamen for winning a race or sometimes to students graduating from sailing school; a sailing school ship (Segelschulschiff).
ReplyDeleteHi Dale. You wouldn't even believe who's writing this. Best to Micki.
Thank you! So who commented above? I would believe it if you tell me. I wonder how my Dad, who never sailed a boat, came into possession of it. And is it of a particular nationality?
ReplyDeleteLike the Scarlet Pimpernel I must remain anonymous. As for nationality; my money is on Norway. The ship "Norske Love" (which doesn't mean having a lust for Norwegians, but rather it means "Norwegian Lion")would probably not be the emblem of choice for any other of the famously nationalistic sailing schools. This type of medal is almost exclusively a Germanic and Scandinavian tradition, therefore: Norway.
ReplyDeleteAs to how your Father got it -- well that's anybody's guess. It's possible somebody put it in the collection plate by mistake!
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ReplyDeletei have one too, am from mauritius
ReplyDeletemine is 31mm and in the back it is engraved
''Deus Salva Nos''[god save us]
anyone has an idea where it comes from?
hups ..yo tengo una en buen estado y tampoco se nada de ella si encuentran algo de info por favor publicar
ReplyDeleteno e encontrado nada sobre ella al parecer la inscripcion es una frase antigua ...
ReplyDeletesorry i do not speak englisch
bye
There is one just like it listed for sale on ebay right now. I found this thread while researching the listing. Anonymous becuz it's the easiest way to post here
ReplyDeleteFound the ebay listing. There it's on a little chain with hooks on the end, apparently a military medal, but it doesn't say anything about it, darn it.
ReplyDeleteHi! I have another one! I've kept it since I was a child, and I don't really know how I came across with it, but suddenly appeared some weeks ago and it has taken a special simbolic value for me for some personal reasons. I just can't imagine how this medal came from Norway (if it is its origin) to Spain, but I only know that it appeared after a lot of time thinking about moving to some scandinavian country. What a coincidence, don't you think? Well, thank you for posting this! I would really appreciate if somebody can share more information about this beautiful little treasure.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say it is in fact a medal, mine has a little orifice at the top for the chain.
ReplyDeleteAt close inspection, it looks like mine might have had a metal loop at the top for a chain, but sawed off and perhaps filed down to turn it into a coin. But I'm not sure. Wow, Jaume, I feel like you and I should form some sort of secret club or something.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to understand what the meaning of this medal,and I found this page..I have one too,mine is silver..I live in Greece and honestly I don't know how it came to my house..I had it since I was little and I kept it in a box which I found yesterday when I was packing some old stuff..
ReplyDeletei found my one on wimbledon common it too has a small orifice for a chain at the top.
ReplyDeleteHaha i have one of those too, and i live in finland, mine says deus salva nos?
ReplyDeleteWe should start a club of all the people in the world who have this mysterious coin.
ReplyDeleteThat s good idea Dale.. we had this one too and I try to search more info. here n google what is the meaning of this medal..
DeleteI have just found a walking cane in an old house I bought with two of these coins embedded in the handle. They have a picture of a ship on with Deus Salva Nos. I can't see the other side of the coins but there are no chain loops on them?
ReplyDeleteEmbedded in the handle of a cane tells me that this coin was held to be important, at least in meaning. What a find!
DeleteI'm sitting here reading these post because going through my motherinlaws things, she passed last Dec., that we have, we came across this coin/medallion, I'm beginning to think she may have had a secret life at one time, a member of a secret society,lol no she just collected alot of what she called treasures,,it is neat though
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting here reading these post because going through my motherinlaws things, she passed last Dec., that we have, we came across this coin/medallion, I'm beginning to think she may have had a secret life at one time, a member of a secret society,lol no she just collected alot of what she called treasures,,it is neat though
ReplyDeleteI've had mine since a child and again don't really know where it came from, always loved it. Just cleaning up an thought I'd type in the wording. Pleased to know if really is something significant.
ReplyDeleteI have one in silver and on a chain. It has the Norske Love on the opposite side. My mother gave it to me when I was a teenager, after we left Germany for the US. No idea where she got it, but I will never give it up. There's something about it that's so beautifully mysterious.
ReplyDeleteAlso posting as anonymous for the sake of convenience.
I too have one, found it in my grandma's Jewelry in a round box with blue velvet top. Still can't find any good info on it, mine is on a silver chain.
ReplyDeleteHere is the ships info
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norske_Løve_(1704)
Thank you, Jo, for this link. Very interesting, and now I have several pictures of (models of) the ship.
DeleteI have one of these. I won it in a auction on a web site called listia.com..mine has a clip on the back.( like use to be one the back of clip on earrings. Except it has a round ring that clips it..maybe to a collar of a jacket or shirt.
ReplyDeleteI found one in my mother's jewelry chest. My guess is she got it in Germany in the early 1950's - my father was stationed in Worms with the U.S. Army.
ReplyDeleteMy father, too, was stationed in Germany around that time. The mystery thickens.
DeleteMaybe the medallions were sold in the PX? My mother's is 35mm. in diameter and has the loop still attached, and she has it on a necklace. It appears to be made of bronze, or perhaps brass.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to think they were just sold in the PX, and, if so, why? My Dad's was stuck away in a little box with other keepsakes, and I don't think just a purchased item would be there, without meaning attached. His - the one I have now - is like the others, except if it ever had a loop, it's been cut off and filed down. I appears to be a coin.
ReplyDeleteI also have one of these items that belonged to my mother who brought it with her when she emigrated to Canada from Germany after WWII. Mine has the chain still attached which looks like it would fit through a hole in a men's jacket and then hang on the outside.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone,
ReplyDeleteI found one today at a hill buried 30cm deep. The hill was man-made at the end of WWII and is located at the southern border of Berlin/Germany. So maybe the medal indeed originates in the 50s.
Great to see there's an actual story behind this.