In 1242 Kingdom of Sicily issued a new coin, whose design was different from all preceding and subsequent coins. In addition the issuer did not follow the usual reduction in fineness technique. What was the reason of the completely different sort of medal design? Probably a dramatic eclipse.
One denier of Stephan V depicts an eclipse. Which eclipse could support the model for this coin's design? And can we be sure that this denier was issued by Stephen V?
The Nine Years’ War (1688–97) – often called the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg started in 1688. By the year 1696 economic of countries involved in war fall into a crisis, and in 1697 they negotiated the Treaty of Ryswick. Numerous medals and tokens were struck in the time of treaty, one of them depict a solar eclipse. But there was not any solar eclipse visible from Europe between 1696 and 1698. Which eclipse could serve as pattern to this token.
A solar eclipse and a medal makes one battle of the Spanish Succession War remarkable for the posterity. The medal is a representative example how politics used medals as propaganda devices.
The helium was discovered in the Sun's atmosphere in the occasion of a solar eclipse in 1868.
The eclipse of 1963 crossed North America and cut to half Maine State.
The eclipse of 1972 - similarly as in 1963 - crossed over North America, but its totality path run trough a bit north of that, over Price Edward Island.
In 1983 a dragon ate the Sun over Indonesia.
The eclipse of 1991 crossed over Mexico and Hawaii. Both states issued commemorative medals.
In 1997 the dragon devoured the Sun over Mongolia.
The eclipse of 1999 passed across the most densely populated parts of Europe and perhaps the world. Never before were so much eclipse coins and medals created for such an occasion. First let us see that were struck in the English-speaking world.
The 1999 eclipse passed through the southern part of Germany. There are many very impressive medals were made on the occasion. Let's see what were struck in the German-speaking world.
The 1999 eclipse cut into half Hungary as well. Although it was not a public holiday, the country almost stopped living. The lake Balaton was in the totality path, most of the people observed event from there. Some medals were made too.
The solar eclipse of 1999 crossed Romania and Turkey as it passed to the east. Both countries issued commemorative coins for the event.
The 2006 eclipse was observable from Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East.
The dragon is in action again. This time it devoured the Sun over China in 2009.
