SAINT ELIGIUS – 5 TROY OUNCE – 50MM – LIMITED MINTAGE: 500 (ANTIQUED)

St. Eligius – The Patron Saint of Numismatics We are very excited to introduce another new series from Intaglio Mint! The “Patron Saint of Numismatics,” a seven coin set that we are going to release in reverse. The seventh in the series is available today, in both BU and ANTIQUE finishes! There will be only 500 of each finish produced! Hallmark and mintage number are laser engraved on the edge of the coin. Among the religious, Eligius is best known as the patron Saint of Horses because of his outstanding skills as a farrier before his work as a goldsmith.  However, it is his work as a Mint Master that has leant his name to the patronage he is more widely known for in coin collecting, as the patron Saint of Numismatics. Eligius was born at the “villa” of Chaptelat, six miles north of Limoges, in Aquitaine (now France), into an educated and influential Gallo-Roman family. His father, recognizing unusual talent in his son, sent him to the goldsmith Abbo, Master of the Mint at Limoges. After commissions from the Merovingian King, Eligius become renowned for his skillful use of precious metal “without any fraud or mixture.” It was only a short time until Eligius was taken into the royal household and appointed Mint Master at Marseilles. We have memorialized Eligius among equipment not yet available to the techniques employed during his lifetime. Saint Eligius watches over the work of a milled coinage house, flanked by a screw press and accouterments of a working shop, yet venerated in the appearance of a Saint. Having dismissed his finery as alms to the poor, he is clothed in a simple robe, with only a Bishop’s mitre adorning his head to signaling the religious work which ultimately gained his favor with the people. As a nod to the many eras of coinage techniques, the reverse is decorated with six well-known coin designs as well as the Intaglio Mint emblem. First, in the uppermost position, is the hammer struck Lydian Lion (1/3 stater), arguably the oldest known coin. Continuing in the clockwise direction is the Chinese Cash Coin, cast in medieval Asia. The third is a Byzantine Solidus, marking the money used after the fall of the West. In the fourth position is the Pillar Dollar, widely used by many countries as the first international currency, with the uniformity partly due to the milled coinage machines used. Next is the Sovereign, depicting Pistrucci’s masterpiece of St. George slaying the dragon, a classic design that moved circulating coinage away from heraldry into beautiful motifs. And last, but not least, as an example of modern coin making techniques is one of America’s greatest coin designs of all times, the Winged Liberty, more widely known as the Mercury Dime. Hallmark and mintage number are laser-engraved on the edge of each piece.