- Description
- Specifications
| ID Number: | DB05-0311 |
| Description: | 1 Franc (Dutch text) |
| Country or State: | Belgium |
| Year: | 1978 |
| Head of State/Ruler: | Baudouin of Belgium |
| Reign: | 1950-1993 |
| Currency: | Franc |
| Obverse: | Head of Ceres facing left, date left, cornucopia right, designer below |
| Obverse Legend: | * 1978 * RAU |
| Reverse: | Crowned oak branch dividing value. Legend in Dutch below |
| Reverse Legend: | 1 FR = BELGIE = |
| Edge: | Reeded |
| Designer: | Marcel Rau |
| Orientation: | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
| Composition: | Copper-Nickel |
| Diameter: | 21.00 mm |
| Thickness: | 1.62 mm |
| Weight: | 4.0000 grams |
| Mintage: | 47,500,000 |
| Catalog Number: | KM# 143.1 |
|
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales (Ceres' games). She was also honoured in the May lustratio of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman. Ceres is the only one of Rome's many agricultural deities to be listed among the Dii Consentes, Rome's equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter, whose mythology was reinterpreted for Ceres in Roman art and literature. |