Memento Mori Coins
You may have found this page as you searched for Memento Mori Coins, or Carpe Diem coins. Because this is a hidden page which you were probably only prompted to look for by finding one of the limited edition coins distributed as a Public Art Installation in 2020.
Congratulations!
I hope that this coin has brightened your day, as an unexpected find. Please keep it as a decision coin - so whenever you need to make a choice about something in life, it can help bring perspective and prioritise what is best.
The coin is designed to play on a medieval theme of "Memento Mori" (roughly translated "remember that you will die"). This isn't a morbid reason to become depressed, but instead a positive reminder that your life is what you make it, and it is worth enjoying every day that you can, or as Horace would urge you, "Carpe Diem" ("seize the day").
The text underneath is also taken from a medieval theme of the meeting of the Three Living and Three Dead. The Three Living, (sometimes shown as three kings, sometimes as a priest or holy man, a king and a rich noble man) know nothing of pain, hunger, ill health or torment. In the midst of some pleasurable pursuit such as hunting or travelling they meet Three Skeletons or three transi (rotting corpses) coming from in the opposite direction. The Skeletons accost the Three Living with the phrase:
As you are now, we once were
As we are now, you will become
Thus serving as a reminded that death comes to everyone. Again, this wasn't seen as a reason to become moribund, but to emphasise that death is a great leveller, and so even the peasants in the field will lie in the ground not far from the rich who may have squandered their time alive on trivial pursuits or gaining worldly wealth that they cannot take with them.
Please do get in touch if you have found a coin. Just let me know using the form below. And you can read more on why this is important in this blogpost.
Didn't find one, but want one? Sometimes available on etsy here.
Leaderboard!
As we start a new round, and new players enter the game...
First place
12 points AJ B Another find - in super quick time too, and whilst on tour in the southernlands!
Ruling it in Orkney, including getting the teenagers involved, and I even accidentally found one!
Second place
9 points Lisa TC latest find in Colchester Castle Chapel!!
Joint third place:
8 points Robert LP high scored for a heart warming story about someone who decided to get out and seize the day!
8 points Sarah Goth with bonus points for getting an Icelander to register as an organ donor!
Fourth (sort of) place
7 points Kristi SE doing well and using trips to Shetland wisely
Hurtling up the leader board in 2022!
5 points Clare S finds around oakington!
5 points SE Jones made a move forward with a cheeky donation to the Sainsbury Art Centre in Norwich
3 points Andy E bonus points for getting it out in the Shetlands
3 points Neil W bonus for genius Pitt Rivers' Donation box!
3 points Corinne D out in nature
3 points Kevin L first find, bonus for Celtic fairy northern Scotland, and bonus for it being out in the wild for a year before being found
Everyone else is a duck so far... or playing a really long game!
Remember there are only 497 more years of play time. And more coins on order to replenlish supplies.