Spiders on Coins

“He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web …”

– The Adventure of The Final Problem (FINA)

Since Sherlock Holmes describes the Napoleon of Crime, Professor Moriarty, as a spider, it’s time for the dreaded spiders on coins post.

The Perth Mint stuck these 1 ounce .999 Silver dollar coins for Australia in 2015 that feature the Australian Funnel-Web Spider.

The Red-Back Spider was the first design back in 2006 for Tuvalu’s Deadly and Dangerous series. This $1 dollar coin contains one ounce of .999 silver and had a mintage of 5,000 coins. It is a visually impressive design and the spider’s web is a nice touch. In a smart marketing move, they also produced a version in the Russian language.

Australia’s Funnel-Web Spider gets more love. In 2013, Tuvalu chose it for the seventh coin in its Deadly and Dangerous series. Like the 2006 issue, the $1 coin contains one ounce of .999 silver and had a mintage of 5,000 coins.

In 2014, the Royal Canadian Mint issued its series of Animal Architects coin. The 27mm .999 fine silver $3 coin was designed by Yves Bérubé and had a mintage of 10,000. The RCM describes the design as featuring a painted specimen of an orb-weaving spider sub-species bearing light and dark markings on its back, body, and eight legs. The spider is viewed from the top, poised atop an embossed orb web rendered in fine detail. The image is lent dimensional detail through expert engraving. The spider occupies the upper left quadrant of the web, moving toward the central hub where it will sit in wait for its unsuspecting insect prey.

The 1 ounce .999 silver 2005 10 Yuan coin is part of the third series of colored coins issued by the People’s Bank of China commemorating the renowned classical Chinese literature “Pilgrimage to the West”, or better known as “Monkey King” to the West. The coin depicts the monkey King fighting with seven spiders, and in full color. The common obverse design is On The Scripture-seeking Route to India, the title of the PRC and year 2005. 38,000 coins were struck and all were proofs.

        

In 2012, Niue began its series of Venomous Spiders coins. These coins feature less than a half ounce of .925 silver and only 1,000 were struck. The 2012 design features the Mexican Redknee Tarantula and the 2013 design features the Brazilian Wandering Spider.

Since 2012, the Perth Mint has been striking a series of two coins annually that shaped like Australia for that country. One of the 2015 designs features the Redback Spider. 6,000 of each design are struck of this one ounce dollar coin.

We’ll wrap up this post by returning to Tuvalu and their 2014 entry of their Deadly and Dangerous series. The main design is not of a spider, but that of Australia’s Spider-Hunting Scorpion. There is a spider in the design and it is being “enjoyed” by the scorpion.

Let’s just pretend that these two creatures are Holmes and Moriarty…..