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Friday 11 December 2020

1589) "Aladdin's Magical Lamp," Palau: The "1001 Arabian Nights Tales": A $5 (Five Dollars) Silver Coin, coordinated by the Coin Invest Trust (CIT) & minted by B.H. Mayer's Kunstprageanstalt GmbH at its facilities in Munich on behalf of the Republic of Palau: Year of Coin issue: 2020:

1589) "Aladdin's Magical Lamp," Palau: The "1001 Arabian Nights Tales": A $5 (Five Dollars)  Silver Coin, coordinated by the Coin Invest Trust (CIT) & minted by B.H. Mayer's Kunstprageanstalt GmbH at its facilities in Munich on behalf of the Republic of Palau: Year of Coin issue: 2020:

The Republic of Palau has issued a  Silver $5 (Dollars) Coin features the Aladdin's Magical Lamp tale from the Arabic "The Thousand and One Arabian Nights" tales.

The Reverse of the $5 (Five Dollars) Silver Coin placed against a background of desert sand dunes

"The Thousand and One Nights" (also called "The Arabian Nights") and in Arabic "Alf Laylah was Laylah") is a collection of Middle Eastern and Indian stories, whose original authorship is obscured in the mists of time. Nevertheless, these tales fascinate the listener with fairy tales, romances, legends, fables, parables, anecdotes and exotic or realistic adventures.

The story originates in Central Asia or "the islands or peninsulae of India and China", where King Shahryar discovers that during his absences, his wife has been unfaithful and executes her and those with whom she has betrayed him. Then he becomes a misogynist and marries and executes new wife every day, until no woman is willing to marry him.

His "vizier" (minister) who has two daughters - Shahrazad (Scheherazade) and Dunyazad is told by the elder daughter that she has devised a plan to save herself and other women from meeting a deadly fate. She asked her father to get her married to the King.

After marriage, every evening, Shahrazad tells him a captivating story, which is so entertaining, that the king is so eager to hear the end, which she narrates only the next day, that he puts off her execution every day and finally abandons his plan to have her put to death/execute her.

Though the names of its chief characters are probably Iranian, the frame-story is Indian, with several names being Arabic. The tales span several countries in their range of origin - India, Iran, Iraq, China, Egypt, Turkey and Greece.

The first known reference to the "1001 Arabian Nights" is a 9th Century fragmentThe next reference is from 947 AD by al-Mas'udi in an essay on a discussion of legendary stories from India, Iran and Greece titled "Hazaar Afsane" (meaning "A Thousand Tales").

In 987 AD, Ibn al-Nadim mentioned that Abu Abd Allah ibn Abdus al-Jahshiyari began a collection of 1000 popular Arabic, Iranian, Indian, Greek and other tales but he died when only 480 stories were written/compiled.

As such, the original title "One Thousand and One Tales" and "One Thousand and One Night", was intended only to convey that a large number of stories have been compiled/collated and was not to be taken literally. Much later, more stories were added to make up this number.

Several persons later worked on the compilation of the Tales, including from Egypt, and translations by Arthur Muller.

By the mid-twentieth Century, six successive forms/writings were identified -two 8th Century Arabic translations of the Persian "Hazar Afsane" (called "Alf Khurafah") and "Alf Laylah", a 9th Century version of Alf Laylah, but including other stories then known.

The 10th Century work by al-Jahshiyari, a 12th Century Collection including Egyptian Tales and a final version, extending to the 16th Century and consisting of the earlier material with the addition of stories of the Islamic Counter-Crusades and tales brought to the Middle East by the Mongols.

The ten Tales best known all over the world are - Shahryar and Scheherazade, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp, The Three Apples, The Tale of The Hunchback, The Vizier and the Sage Duban, The Fisherman and the Djinni, The Lovers of Bassorah, The Three Princes and the Princess Nouronnihar also got added to the corpus.

In 1704 and 1717, the first European translation of the Tales which was also the first published edition was done by Antoine Galland as "Les Mille et Une Nuits, contes arabes traduits en francais" (12 volumes). His translation remained standard until the mid-19th Century, some portions even being re-translated into Arabic, the Arabic text being published at Calcutta (present day Kolkata).

French and English continuations, versions or editions of Galland later added more stories from oral traditions and manuscript sources.

Among the best-known 19th Century translations into English are of Richard Francis Bacon, who published translations from the Arabian Nights Tales in ten volumes in 1885, which he called "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night". His addendum "Supplementary Nights" was published between 1886 and 1888 in six volumes.

The Story of Aladdin's Magical Lamp:

This "mystical" coin captures the spirit of the collection of "1001 Arabian Nights Tales". 

Though it was not a part of the original Arabic text of "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights", it is one of the best known tales associated with that collection. It was added by Antoine Galland, who acquired the tale from the Syrian Maronite story-teller Hanna Diyab.

The story is often retold with variations. Aladdin is an impoverished young lad who is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who pretends to be a brother of Aladdin's late father - Mustafa the tailor and convinces Aladdin and his mother of his good will by telling the that he would set up Aladdin as a wealthy merchant.

The sorcerer's real intention/motive was to persuade Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin found himself still wearing a magic ring the sorcerer had lent him.

When, Aladdin rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring and a "genie" or "jinni" or "jin" appears before him and releases him from the cave, allowing him to return to his mother, while in possession of the lamp.

When his mother tries to clean the lamp, so that they can sell it to buy food for their supper, a second far more powerful "jin" appears, who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp.

With the aid of the "jin" of the lamp, Aladdin became  rich and powerful and married Princess Badroulbadour, the Sultan's daughter (after magically foiling her marriage to the "vizier" (minister).

The "jin" builds a wonderful palace for Aladdin and his bride - far more magnificent than the Sultan's.

The sorcerer on hearing of Aladdin's good fortune, returned to possess the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife (who is unaware of the lamp's magical importance) by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He ordered the "jin" of the lamp to take the palace, along with its contents to his home in Maghreb.

Aladdin still has the magic ring and summons the lesser "genie" who transports Aladdin to Maghreb, where with the princess's wiles, he recovers the lamp and slays the sorcerer, returning the palace to its original place.

Now, the sorcerer's more powerful and evil brother plots to destroy Aladdin for killing his brother, by disguising himself as an old woman known for her healing powers. Badroulbadour falls for his disguise and permits the "woman" to stay in Aladdin's palace, in case of any illnesses.

Aladdin is warned of this danger by the "genie" of the lamp and contrives to kill the imposter.

Aladdin eventually succeeds to his father-in-law's throne.

The $5 (Five Dollars) Silver Coin captures the spirit of Scheherazade's story telling in the "1001 Arabian Nights Tales" Collection:

The Reverse of the  $5 (Five Dollars) Silver Black Proof Coin depicts the Magical Lamp lying in the sand with the dunes in the background against a canvas of a starry night sky.

A detail of three desert travellers is seen to the left of the lamp. The sophisticated colourisation of the mystical smoke coming out of the lamp adds a unique touch to this piece.

The Obverse of the $5 (Five Dollars) Silver Black Proof Coin depicts the Emblem of the Republic of Palau in the centre. The peripheral inscriptions are - "REPUBLIC OF PALAU" and "5$". On the periphery are also seen three stars on either side.

The specifications of this coin are:

Country of issue: Republic of Palau; Theme: "Aladdin's Magical Lamp - 1001 Arabian Nights Tales"; Denomination: $5 (Five Dollars); Metal Composition: .999 Fineness Silver (Ag); Diameter/Size: 33.0 mm; Coin Quality: Black Proof; Mintage: 1,001 pieces; Special Technique: Smartminting/High Relief; Year: 2021; Presentation Case: Yes.

The Presentation Case in which the Coin is housed.

A Gold Coin Variant of $1 (One Dollar):

A Gold Coin Variant of $1 (One Dollar) struck in the unique shape of the Magical Lamp is also on offer:

The Obverse and Reverse of the Gold Coin Variant.

















Other links to interesting posts on Coins brought out by Coin Invest Trust on behalf of other countries:




14) Pterosauria from the Mesozoic Era - The Age of the reptiles" (70 to 225 million years ago): Fourth Coin in the "Evolution of Life Coin Series" brought out by Coin Invest Trust on behalf of the Republic of Mongolia in 2018


15) Sinraptor (Sinraptor dongi): Fifth Coin in the "Evolution of Life Coin Series" brought out by Coin Invest Trust (CIT) on behalf of the Republic of Mongolia: Coin minted by B.H. Mayer's Kunstprageanstalt GmbH issued in 08/2019

16) Diplocaulus: Sixth Coin in the Evolution of Life Coin Series" brought out by Coin Invest Trust on behalf of the Republic of Mongolia: Coin minted by B'H' Mayer's Kunsprageanstalt GmbH issued in 08/2020

17) Velociraptor (meaning "Swift Seizer"), Mongolia (from the Cretaceous Period 75 to 71 million years ago - approx) - "Part I": "Prehistoric Beasts Series": A 2000 Togrog Silver Coin issued by the Coin Invest Trust, minted by BH Mayer's Kunstprageanstalt, Munich, in 2018








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Links to posts on Coin issues from Solomon Islands:



Other links to interesting posts on Coins brought out by Coin Invest Trust on behalf of other countries:








The 7-Summits Silver Coin Series:

Links on Batman and Superman Posts on this Blog:

Links to posts on Russian Coins, Banknotes and stamps:

1) A 100 Rouble Banknote issued by Russia to commemorate the XXII Winter Olympics - (07-23 February 2014) held at Sochi, Russia

2) Commemorative Coins issued when the 1980 22nd Summer Olympics were held in Moscow (19.07.1980 to 03.08.1980)

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4) "Ancient Postal Routes - the Kholmogory post road (Arkhangelsk - Vologda - Yaroclavi - Moscow), Russia: Europa 2020 theme: A stamp brought out by "Pochta Rossii"(Russian Post) featuring this important post road: Date of Stamp issue: 15.01.2020







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