Our fabulous journey into the realm of fantasy continues on the second coin in the Mythical Creatures series in the form of the hippocampus. An amazing creature from ancient mythology that is part horse and part fish, when lit with UV light the colourful hippocampus appears to leap from the coin.

The name hippocampus comes from the combination of the Greek words híppos for horse and kámpos for sea monster. In ancient legends, the hippocampus pulled the chariot of the sea god, known as Poseidon by the Greeks and as Neptune by the Romans. Wild and impetuous, like the sea during a storm, the hippocampus was considered dangerous, especially by sailors, although they also found it noble.

Hippocampi are found on ancient mosaics, roman reliefs, in heraldic images and on fountains. Ships were sometimes decorated with a fish-horse motif, too. Today, Hippocampus is the biological genus name for all species of seahorse, an animal whose tail curls into a spiral and is used for clinging to seaweed, coral and algae rather than for mobility or steering.

Coin motif

The coin’s reverse depicts a colour-printed hippocampus standing on its front legs with a shimmering bluish fish tail, with seaweed and coral to its left and a golden crown and ornamentation below. A band of gold runs around the coin’s edge. The obverse features an intricately decorated key with the letter ‘F’ representing the first letter of the German name of the coin series. Behind it a sun is depicted in the style of a silhouette, recessed into a circular, textured relief. The stars sparkling around the edge and the irregularly shaped letters add to the coin’s enchanted feel.