Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: coins

  • The Hogmouths of Habsburg

    Craig BlackstoneBethesda, Maryland, United States Coins are miniature works of art. Since portraits of prominent individuals have graced coins for millennia, images forged in precious metals in the distant past can represent disease even now. Indeed, the earliest artistic depictions of disorders such as goiter and trichoepithelioma were on ancient Greek, Roman, and Parthian coins.1…

  • Mingling medicine and medals

    Ira RezakStony Brook, New York, United States When I was nine or ten, my grandfather gave me a Dutch two and a half guilder, which looked like a dollar but which I soon found out could not be spent in Brooklyn. After frustration came curiosity about the strange language, coat of arms, and denomination that…