Bajoire

With Bajoire ( fr. To meringue ) or kiss coin was once described in the numismatics a coin or medal on which a double portrait , especially rulers couples could be seen.

Since the 3rd century BC , the Ptolemies in Egypt minted corresponding coins on which, for example, the ruling siblings were depicted.

A more recent example from antiquity is a gold medal of the Eastern Roman Emperors Valens and Valentinian I in the Berlin Münzkabinett, weighing 242.44 g, on which the facing breasts of the brother couple can be seen with the inscription regis romanorum . The crude artistic style and expression (rex is in itself the title of the barbarian kings ) suggest a Germanic imitator.

But such kiss coins also exist in the early modern period , as evidenced by the gold excellente of 1497 of the Spanish royal couple Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella (ibid.), Who also showed the beautiful and programmatic inscription: quos deus conjunxit, homo non separet - which God connected, man should not separate .

Illustrations

See: Arthur Suhle: Cultural History of Coins. Battenberg, Munich 1969, p. 64 and SW panel 285.