In this 100 Greatest Women On Coins blog series exploring Whitman Publishing’s detailed list, there are a number of women from mythology and real life that author Ron Guth found worthy of mentioning. In fact, there are hundreds of women that did not make the top 100, but this next entry just HAD to be on the list. Why? Her story in creation is the first in a lot of ways, including being the first woman.
#39 - Eve
In the biblical story of creation, Eve was the first woman. In the book of Genesis, the loneliness of Adam, the first man, was told and so God created a woman from a rib taken from Adam’s side as he slept. She was created by God to help Adam as he cared for their home, also known as the Garden of Eden. The garden housed a number of trees, including the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Both of those trees produced edible fruit but God prohibited Adam and Eve from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, Eve would end up being convinced by The Devil in the form of a serpent that she would not be punished. She then convinced Adam to eat the fruit with her. In the end, God would find out and kick them out of the Garden.
Eve would go on to have two sons by the name of Cain and Abel. It is said that she might have had other children (perhaps Cain’s wife) but the Bible does not say where she came from. Within goddess terminology, Eve is considered and described as the “mother of all living things.” In Hebrew, she is known as Hawwah and has been equated to Ishtar of Babylon, the Hindu goddess Kali, and Tlazalteol from Aztec culture.
In 2011, Palau produced and issued a $2 coin as part of a Biblical Stories series. The coin depicted Eve taking a bite of one fruit while handing another to Adam. There was also a 50-lire coin from 1988 that was issued from The Vatican that showed God breathing life into Eve as she arises from Adam’s side.
Guth explains the collecting difficulty of coins featuring Eve to be “slightly difficult.” The $2 Palau coin had a total of 1,000 struck making them scarce. The Vatican coin is also difficult to find although it is considered an inexpensive alternative to the Palau coin.