Silver coin 2 Oz Nature Spirits: Sylphid

Another spirit of nature featured on this exceptional silver coin from the modern mint Mint XXI is the Sylphid.

Ancient alchemists believed that each element was home to a different supernatural being. According to them, air belonged to the sylphs – ethereal and almost immaterial women who allow themselves to be carried by the wind. Air, which is in constant motion, was associated in occult teachings with lightness, intellect, breath and freedom. Sylphs thus became the embodiment of unstoppable and elusive forces, which, although invisible, nevertheless influence the world around us. In times when natural phenomena had not yet been explained by science, such beings offered a way of understanding the capriciousness of the atmosphere. Today, we know what causes both a gentle breeze and a destructive storm, but thanks to the human imagination, an ordinary cloud can still take on the shape of a face…

The reverse side of the coin features two depictions of sylphs. Whilst the first emphasises her graceful face, emerging from the clouds, the second takes the form of a petite woman flying on a swallow. A moonstone is set into the relief, which takes on iridescent hues thanks to its colouring. The obverse, meanwhile, features not only sylphs but also the spirits of other elements. As the coin is issued under a foreign licence from the state of Cameroon, the obverse side also bears its name, the year 2027 and the nominal value of 2,000 CFA francs (XAF). All of this is rendered in high relief, embellished with a patina.

Minted from two ounces of pure silver, the coin has a mintage of 500 pieces.