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Coins for the dead is a form of respect for the dead or bereavement. The practice began in classical antiquity when people believed the dead needed coins to pay a ferryman to cross the river Styx. In modern times the practice has been observed in the United States and Canada: visitors leave coins on the gravestones of former military personnel. [1]
So-called "ghost coins" also appear with the dead. These are impressions of an actual coin or numismatic icon struck into a small piece of gold foil. [73] In a 5th- or 4th-century BC grave at Syracuse, Sicily, a small rectangular gold leaf stamped with a dual-faced figure, possibly Demeter/Kore, was found in the skeleton's mouth.
A single coin buried with the dead and made of silver or gold is often referred to as a danake and presumed to be a form of Charon's obol. Numismatists have also found the danake an elusive coin to identify, speculating that the Greeks used the term loosely for a demonetized coin of foreign origin.
Attic red-figure lekythos attributed to the Tymbos painter showing Charon welcoming a soul into his boat, c. 500–450 BC. In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (/ ˈ k ɛər ɒ n,-ən / KAIR-on, -ən; Ancient Greek: Χάρων Ancient Greek pronunciation: [kʰá.rɔːn]) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of the Greek underworld.
A coin issued by Gaius Caesar - also known as Caligula - decorated with a portrait of the Empress Agrippina and dated to A.D. 37-38 sold for about $9,295, according to the BBC.Another coin, issued ...
In ancient Greece, it was generally reckoned as 1 ⁄ 6 drachma (c. 0.72 grams or 11 grains). [ 14 ] [ 15 ] Under Roman rule, it was defined as 1 ⁄ 48 Roman ounce or about 0.57 g (9 gr). [ 16 ] The apothecaries' system also reckoned the obol or obolus as 1 ⁄ 48 ounce or 1 ⁄ 2 scruple .
Cannibalism was a routine funerary practice in Europe about 15,000 years ago, with people eating their dead not out of necessity but rather as part of their culture, according to a new study.
A string of clay Ban Liang (半兩) cash coins discovered at the Mawangdui site in Changsha, Hunan. Chinese burial money (traditional Chinese: 瘞錢; simplified Chinese: 瘗钱; pinyin: yì qián) a.k.a. dark coins (traditional Chinese: 冥錢; simplified Chinese: 冥钱; pinyin: míng qián) [1] [2] are Chinese imitations of currency that are placed in the grave of a person that is to be buried.