Back
to Ecuadorian Numismatics Home Page
Here you will find information on the 8 Escudos coin from Ecuador
featured in a chapter of Moby Dick, links to more information on Ecuadorian
coins, and the actual chapter from Moby Dick about the coin.
Background Information on the Coin:
 |
This coin is listed in Krause-Mishler's Standard Catalog of World
Coins as KM 23.1, and in Yeoman as Y-17.. It contains 27.0640 grams
of gold, .7614 oz AGW. It bears the engraver's initial A in the front drape
of the bust; the assayers were ST (Santiago Taylor) and MV (Miguel Vergara).
The coin was produced from 1838-1841 (a smaller version was made from 1841-1843).
According to Historia Numismática del Ecuador by Carlos Ortuño,
a total of 402649 8 Escudos coins were produced between March 14 1838 and
Oct. 30 1840; however, most have undoubtably been melted down by now and
the coin is now difficult and expensive to obtain.
Obverse legend:
Reverse legend:
1999 Krause catalog values for this coin: Condition: Very Good Fine
Very Fine Extra Fine
|
| For a complete bibliography on Ecuadorian coins, click here. |
The Executive Decree Specifying the Appearance of the Coin:
The Executive Decree of July 14, 1836, specified the characteristics
of the 4 Escudos coins introduced in that year. The same specifications
were later used for the 8 Escudos coins introduced in 1838, the "Moby Dick
coins". Below you can see the actual specifications given in the decree
(in the original Spanish and in English translation).
| Original Spanish Text (from Ortuño) | English Translation (prepared by myself) |
| "En el anverso tendrá en todo el plano de enfrente, y a una
elevación correspondiente al sol el zodíaco o eclíptica,
perpendicular a la línea equinoccial, indicando el Ecuador. Sobre
el sol, y a una distancia proporcionada, se manifestarán siete estrellas,
que indican las siete provincias que forman la República: -- Quito,
Chimborazo, Imbabura, Guayaquil, Manabí, Cuenca y Loja. --A la derecha
estarán los dos cerros principales que hacen el nudo de la cordillera
de Pinchicha; en el primer punto el Guagua Pichincha sobre el cual reposará
un cóndor y en el segundo el Ruco Pichincha volcán. A la
izquierda del escudo se grabará un risco, sobre él una torre
y sobre ésta se colocará otro cóndor que haga frente
al que está sobre el cerro de la derecha. La inscripción
será REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR--QUITO, colocada perpendicularmente bajo
el sol; y a la derecha de Quito las letras iniciales del ensayador. En
el reverso: el busto de la Libertad que llene el plano, cuya cabeza estará
ceñida de una cinta con la inscripción: LIBERTAD.
En la circunferencia llevará esta otra: EL PODER EN LA CONSTITUCION. Dejabo del busto se fijará el año de la emisión con el número de quilates a la izquierda, en esta forma: 21 Qs; y a la derecha del milésimo el valor de la media onza indicado con el número y la letra siguiente: 4--E, que son cuatro escudos. La gráfila y el cordón lo mismo que en los escudos y doblones de a cuatro formado con ccc entrelazados que forman unas conchitas". |
"On the obvserse it will have on the entire surface of the coin, and
at an elevation corresponding to the sun the zodiac or the ecliptic, perpendicular
to the equinoctial line, indicating the equator. Above the sun, and at
a proportionate distance, seven stars will be shown, that represent the
seven provinces that form the Republic: --Quito, Chimborazo, Imbabura,
Guayaquil, Manabí, Cuenca and Loja. --To the right will be the two
principal mountains that make up the Pichincha mountain chain; on the first
point the Guagua Pichincha on which will rest a condor and on the second
the Ruco Pichincha volcano. To the left of the shield will be engraved
a cliff, on it a tower and on this will be placed another condor that will
face the one that is on the peak to the right. The inscription will be
REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR--QUITO, placed perpendicularly below the sun; and at
the right of Quito the initials of the assayer. On the reverse: the bust
of Liberty that fills the surface, whose head is girded with a ribbon with
the inscription: LIBERTY.
On the circumference it will bear this other: THE POWER IN THE CONSTITUTION. Below the bust one will affix the year of issuance with the number of carats to the left, in this form: 21 Qs; and at the right of the date the value of the coin indicated with the following number and letter: 4--E, which are four escudos. The border and the ribbon just as in the escudos and doubloons of four escudos formed with ccc crisscrossed formed by little seashells." |
The Coin in Moby Dick:
(This chapter was taken from Wiretap's text archive. Here Ahab is contemplating
the coin nailed to the ship's mast, offered to he who could kill the whale.
Click here
for the menu of all the chapters, or here
for information on the Wiretap collection of public domain texts. For more
information about Moby Dick or other works by Herman Melville, check out
The
Life and Works of Herman Melville.)
< chapter xcix 30 THE DOUBLOON >
Ere now it has been related how Ahab was
wont to pace his quarter-deck, taking regular turns at either limit,
the
binnacle
.. <p 427 >
and mainmast; but in the multiplicity of other things requiring narration
it
has not been added how that sometimes in these walks, when most plunged
in
his mood, he was wont to pause in turn at each spot, and stand there
strangely eyeing the particular object before him.
When he halted before the
binnacle, with his glance fastened on the pointed needle in the compass,
that
glance shot like a javelin with the pointed intensity of his purpose;
and
when resuming his walk he again paused before the mainmast, then, as
the same
riveted glance fastened upon the riveted gold coin there, he still
wore the
same aspect of nailed firmness, only dashed with a certain wild longing,
if
not hopefulness. But one morning, turning to pass the doubloon,
he seemed
to be newly attracted by the strange figures and inscriptions stamped
on it,
as though now for the first time beginning to interpret for himself
in some
monomaniac way whatever significance might lurk in them. And
some certain
significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth,
and the
round world itself but an empty cipher, except to sell by the cartload,
as
they do hills about Boston, to fill up some morass in the Milky Way.
Now
this doubloon was of purest, virgin gold, raked somewhere out of the
heart of
gorgeous hills, whence, east and west, over golden sands, the head-waters
of
many a Pactolus flows. And though now nailed amidst all the rustiness
of iron
bolts and the verdigris of copper spikes, yet, untouchable and immaculate
to
any foulness, it still preserved its Quito glow. Nor, though
placed amongst
a ruthless crew and every hour passed by ruthless hands, and through
the
livelong nights shrouded with thick darkness which might cover any
pilfering
approach, nevertheless every sunrise found the doubloon where the sunset
left
it last. For it was set apart and sanctified
to one awe-striking end; and
however wanton in their sailor ways, one and all, the mariners revered
it as
the white whale's talisman. Sometimes they talked it over in
the weary watch
by night, wondering whose it was to be at last, and whether he would
ever
live to spend it. Now those noble golden coins of South America
are as
.. <p 428 >
medals of the sun and tropic token-pieces. Here palms, alpacas,
and
volcanoes; sun's disks and stars; ecliptics, horns-of-plenty, and rich
banners waving, are in luxuriant profusion stamped; so that the precious
gold
seems almost to derive an added preciousness and enhancing glories,
by
passing through those fancy mints, so Spanishly poetic. It so
chanced that
the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy example of these things.
On its
round border it bore the letters, REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR: QUITO.
So this
bright coin came from a country planted in the middle of the world,
and
beneath the great equator, and named after it; and it had been cast
midway
up the Andes, in the unwaning clime that knows no autumn. Zoned
by those
letters you saw the likeness of three Andes' summits; from one a flame;
a
tower on another; on the third a crowing cock; while arching over all
was a
segment of the partitioned zodiac, the signs all marked with their
usual
cabalistics, and the keystone sun entering the equinoctial point at
Libra.
Before this equatorial coin, Ahab, not unobserved by others, was now
pausing.
There's something ever egotistical in mountain-tops
and towers, and all
other grand and lofty things; look here, --three peaks as proud as
Lucifer.
The firm tower, that is Ahab; the volcano, that is Ahab; the courageous,
the
undaunted, and victorious fowl, that, too, is Ahab; all are Ahab; and
this
round gold is but the image of the rounder globe, which, like a magician's
glass, to each and every man in turn but mirrors back his own mysterious
self. Great pains, small gains for those who ask the world to
solve them; it
cannot solve itself. Methinks now this coined sun wears a ruddy
face; but
see! aye, he enters the sign of storms, the equinox! and
but six months
before he wheeled out of a former equinox at Aries! From storm
to storm! So
be it, then. Born in throes, 't is fit that man should live in
pains and die
in pangs! So be it, then! Here's stout stuff for woe to
work on. So be it,
then. No fairy fingers can have pressed the gold, but devil's
claws must
have left their mouldings there since yesterday, murmured Starbuck
to
himself, leaning against the bulwarks. The old
.. <p 429 >
man seems to read Belshazzar's awful writing. I have never marked
the coin
inspectingly. He goes below; let me read. A dark valley
between three
mighty, heaven-abiding peaks, that almost seem the Trinity, in some
faint
earthly symbol. So in this vale of Death, God girds us round;
and over all
our gloom, the sun of Righteousness still shines a beacon and a hope.
If we
bend down our eyes, the dark vale shows her mouldy soil; but if we
lift them,
the bright sun meets our glance half way, to
cheer. Yet, oh, the great sun
is no fixture; and if, at midnight, we would fain snatch some sweet
solace
from him, we gaze for him in vain! This coin speaks wisely, mildly,
truly,
but still sadly to me. I will quit it, lest Truth shake me falsely.
There
now's the old Mogul, soliloquized Stubb by the try-works, he's been
twigging
it; and there goes Starbuck from the same, and both with faces which
I
should say might be somewhere within nine fathoms long. And all
from looking
at a piece of gold, which did I have it now on Negro Hill or in Corlaer's
Hook, I'd not look at it very long ere spending it. Humph!
in my poor,
insignificant opinion, I regard this as queer. I have seen doubloons
before
now in my voyagings; your doubloons of old Spain, your doubloons of
Peru,
your doubloons of Chili, your doubloons of Bolivia, your doubloons
of
Popayan; with plenty of gold moidores and pistoles, and joes, and half
joes,
and quarter joes. what then should there be in this doubloon
of the Equator
that is so killing wonderful? By Golconda! let me read
it once. Halloa!
here's signs and wonders truly! That, now, is what old Bowditch
in his
Epitome calls the zodiac, and what my almanack below calls ditto.
I'll get
the almanack and as I have heard devils can be raised with Daboll's
arithmetic, I'll try my hand at raising a meaning out of these queer
curvicues here with the Massachusetts calendar. Here's the book.
Let's see
now. Signs and wonders; and the sun, he's always among 'em.
Hem, hem, hem;
here they are --here they go --all alive: --Aries,
or the Ram; Taurus, or the
Bull and Jimimi! here's Gemini himself, or the Twins. Well;
the sun he
wheels among 'em. Aye, here on the coin he's just crossing the
threshold
between two of twelve sitting-rooms all in a ring. Book!
you lie there; the
fact is, you books must know your
.. <p 430 >
places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we
come in to
supply the thoughts. That's my small experience, so far as the
Massachusetts
calendar, and Bowditch's navigator, and Daboll's arithmetic go.
Signs and
wonders, eh? Pity if there is nothing wonderful in signs, and
significant in
wonders! There's a clue somewhere; wait a bit; hist--hark!
By Jove, I have
it! Look you, Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in
one round
chapter; and now I'll read it off, straight out of the book.
Come, Almanack!
To begin: there's Aries, or the Ram --lecherous
dog, he begets us; then,
Taurus, or the Bull --he bumps us the first thing; then Gemini, or
the Twins --
that is, Virtue and Vice; we try to reach Virtue,
when lo! comes Cancer
the Crab, and drags us back; and here, going from Virtue, Leo, a roaring
Lion, lies in the path --he gives a few fierce bites and surly dabs
with his
paw; we escape, and hail Virgo, the Virgin! that's our first
love; we marry
and think to be happy for aye, when pop comes Libra, or the Scales
--happiness
weighed and found wanting; and while we are
very sad about that, Lord! how
we suddenly jump, as Scorpio, or the Scorpion, stings us in rear; we
are
curing the wound, when whang come the arrows all round; Sagittarius,
or the
Archer, is amusing himself. As we pluck out the shafts, stand
aside; here's
the battering-ram, Capricornus, or the Goat; full tilt, he comes rushing,
and
headlong we are tossed; when Aquarius, or the Water-bearer, pours out
his
whole deluge and drowns us; and to wind up with Pisces, or the Fishes,
we
sleep. There's a sermon now, writ in high heaven, and the sun
goes through
it every year, and yet comes out of it all alive and hearty.
Jollily he,
aloft there, wheels through toil and trouble; and so, alow here, does
jolly
Stubb. Oh, jolly's the word for aye! Adieu, Doubloon!
But stop; here comes
little King-Post; dodge round the try-works, now, and let's hear what
he'll
have to say. There; he's before it; he'll out with something
presently. So,
so; he's beginning. I see nothing here, but a round thing made
of gold,
and whoever raises a certain whale, this round thing belongs to him.
So,
what's all this staring been about? It is worth sixteen dollars,
that's true;
and at two cents the cigar, that's nine hundred and
.. <p 431 >
sixty cigars. I wont smoke dirty pipes like Stubb, but I like
cigars, and
here's nine hundred and sixty of them; so here goes Flask aloft to
spy 'em
out. Shall I call that wise or foolish, now; if it be really
wise it has a
foolish look to it; yet, if it be really foolish, then has it a sort
of
wiseish look to it. But, avast; here comes our old Manxman --the
old
hearse-driver, he must have been, that is, before he took to the sea.
He
luffs up before the doubloon; halloa, and goes round on the other side
of the
mast; why, there's a horse-shoe nailed on that side; and now he's back
again; what does that mean? Hark! he's muttering --voice
like an old
worn-out coffee-mill. Prick ears, and listen! If the White
Whale be
raised, it must be in a month and a day, when the sun stands in some
one of
these signs. I've studied signs, and know their marks; they were
taught me
two score years ago, by the old witch in Copenhagen. Now, in
what sign will
the sun then be? The horse-shoe sign; for there it is, right
opposite the
gold. And what's the horse-shoe sign? The lion is the horse-shoe
sign --the
roaring and devouring lion. Ship, old ship! my old head
shakes to think of
thee. There's another rendering now; but still one text.
All sorts of men
in one kind of world, you see. Dodge again! here comes
Queequeg --all
tattooing --looks like the signs of the Zodiac himself. What
says the
Cannibal? As I live he's comparing notes; looking at his thigh
bone; thinks
the sun is in the thigh, or in the calf, or in the bowels, I suppose,
as
the old women talk Surgeon's Astronomy in the back country. And
by Jove, he's
found something there in the vicinity of his
thigh --I guess it's Sagittarius,
or the Archer. No: he don't know what to make of the doubloon;
he takes it
for an old button off some king's trowsers. But, aside again!
here comes
that ghost-devil, Fedallah; tail coiled out of sight as usual, oakum
in the
toes of his pumps as usual. What does he say, with that look
of his? Ah,
only makes a sign to the sign and bows himself; there is a sun on the
coin
--fire worshipper, depend upon it. Ho! more and more.
This way comes Pip
--poor boy! would he had died, or I; he's half horrible to me.
He too has
been watching all of these interpreters --myself included --and look
now, he
comes to read,
.. <p 432 >
with that unearthly idiot face. stand away again and hear him.
hark! I
look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look. Upon my
soul,
he's been studying Murray's Grammar! Improving his mind, poor
fellow! But
what's that he says now -- hist! I look, you look, he looks;
we look, ye
look, they look. Why, he's getting it by heart --hist!
again. I look,
you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look. Well, that's
funny.
And I, you, and he; and we, ye, and they, are
all bats; and I'm a crow,
especially when I stand a'top of this pine tree here. Caw!
caw! caw! caw! caw!
caw! Ain't I a crow? And where's the scare-crow?
There he stands; two
bones stuck into a pair of old trowsers, and two more poked into the
sleeves
of an old jacket. Wonder if he means me? --complimentary! --poor
lad! --I
could go hang myself. Any way, for the present, I'll quit Pip's
vicinity.
I can stand the rest, for they have plain wits; but he's too crazy-witty
for my sanity. So, so, I leave him muttering. Here's the
ship's navel,
this doubloon here, and they are all on fire to unscrew it. But,
unscrew
your navel, and what's the consequence? Then again, if it stays
here, that
is ugly, too, for when aught's nailed to the mast it's a sign that
things grow
desperate. Ha, ha! old Ahab!
the White Whale; he'll nail ye! This is a
pine tree. My father, in old Tolland county, cut down a pine
tree once, and
found a silver ring grown over in it; some old darkey's wedding ring.
How
did it get there? And so they'll say in the resurrection, when
they come to
fish up this old mast, and find a doubloon lodged in it, with bedded
oysters
for the shaggy bark. Oh, the gold! the precious, precious
gold! --the green
miser 'll hoard ye soon! Hish! hish! God goes 'mong
the worlds
blackberrying. Cook! ho, cook! and cook us!
Jenny! hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, Jenny, Jenny! and get your hoe-cake done!
.. <p 433 >
.
| Email me at:
|