Ghost Coins

After reading an article about coins on the tombstones of Veterans my curiosity got the better of me and …..

It is a custom in some cultures to place coins on the eyes, in the mouth or around the feet of the deceased. Coins also have been found in jars with the cremated remains. Why? Is it to keep their eyes closed, pay a mythological ferryman, to be able to buy goods in the next life?

Magyar tradition whispers down through the ages that covering the eyes with silver, which is most commonly found in coins, will keep the eyes closed and the people looking at the deceased will not see their own death reflected in the eyes of the departed.

There has been much controversy about the Shroud of Turin and whether there may have been coins on the eyelids of the man buried under the shroud. It was not the custom of the Jews, pre- Jesus in Palestine, to place coins on the eyes or in the mouths of the deceased. According to tradition and Jewish custom it is considered disrespectful to look into the eyes of someone who cannot look back at you. In Jewish Palestine the Greek and Roman custom of placing coins with a body to pay a Ferryman to take a Soul or shade across the river Styx was considered Idolatry and against the teachings of the 10 commandments.

Back to the coin images on the Shroud of Turin.  Images of the coins appear to display the images for letters that were linked to Tiberius Caesar.    Which puts them being made during the governorship of Pontius Pilot. The coins were called “widow’s mites” and were very common in Jewish Palestine in 29 AD.       

   

Charon is from Greek mythology. He is the child of Nyx, the goddess of the night who was present at the creation and Erebus, who was darkness. They were brother and sister. He is a ferryman, who takes the shades or souls of the deceased across the river Styx that divides the world of the living from the dead. A coin or obol was placed in or on the mouth of the deceased as payment to Charon for taking them across the Styx. If he did not receive payment the souls would remain for 100 years wondering the shores of the river.  This is where the tradition of placing coins in the mouth comes from.    

                                                          Charon and Psyche by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope

The eyes in death can shut or remain open. The shut eyes give us a sense of peace and open eyes give us a sense of terror. The eyes were closed and weighted until rigor set in and they would stay closed on their own.

Joss paper, hell money, shade paper or ghost money is a tradition from China and Vietnam.  Ghost money is made from paper and created to look like real money and was made of bamboo or rice.  It is divided into three types of ghost money, copper, silver and gold. Copper cash is given to the newly deceased. Gold ghost cash is given to the deceased and also to the lesser gods. Silver ghost cash is given to ancestral spirits and local god and goddess. These have to be given in strict amounts and order so as not to insult the departed. Ghost money is burned at the grave site along with other paper images of items the deceased may need in the afterlife such as a parasol for shade, or a horse to travel on.  This ghost money can be used to bribe officials and administrators in the afterlife to keep you in one level or move you to the next so that you may reach reincarnation faster.

Pennies are thrown on to the grave of Benjamin Franklin at the Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia; the reason “a penny saved is a penny earned” tribute to Benjamin Franklin.

Ghost tales also speak of leaving coins on a tombstone.  If a person you owe money to dies they will haunt you until you have paid them back. Leaving coins on their tombstone before midnight will assure the ghost of your attempt to pay them back.

I am now in the mood to watch Boondock Saints