2017-08-22 Tue

Greece released a Proof 2017 silver €10 coin celebrating the Greek poet Sappho (630 to 570 B.C.). The coin release is part of a series that portrays Greek culture.

Sappho was a lyric poet in ancient Greece who was known for expressing personal emotions. She wrote in Aeolian dialect and used a lyre to sing them. She was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC. Experts believe that she must have written 10,000 lines of poetry, out of which 650 lines survive even today.

Her works mostly talk about different subjects like nature and love, hymeneals and epithalamia (marriage songs), odes and invocations of gods. She was known for her lyric imagery, female sensitivity and eroticism. Sappho was even called as the “tenth Muse.” She was a symbol of love and desire between women.

The obverse depicts the poet along with her birth/ death years and a floral pattern. The reverse depicts an ancient musical instrument called a lyre which looks like a harp, the denomination, country and a floral pattern. The Proof .925 fine silver coin weighs 34.1 grams, has a mintage limit of 2,000 pieces and costs $115.