Modern European coins

PD Photo: A selection of modern European coins from countries such as Bosnia, Slovenia, Hungary, Denmark and United Kingdom.

Francisco Goya on Spanish currency note

Image: Portrait of Francisco Goya, 1826, by Vicente López y Portaña (1772-1850), oil on canvas, 93 cm x 75 cm (36.61 in x 29.53 in), Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

Francisco Goya, born Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, (1746-1828) was a Spanish romantic painter regarded as the last of the Old Masters and also as the first of the Modern Masters. The imaginative element in his art and his bold handling of paint, colours and brush strokes became a model for the works of later generations of artists, notably Manet and Picasso. To honour him, a 500 Pesetas currency note was issued by Spain, as seen below:

Photo: The 500-Pesetas bank note issued by Banco de Espana in July 1874 featuring Francisco Goya on the face of the currency. The back side is of a different color, as in the other Spanish currency notes of the period.

Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temple

Image: Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temple (1626), oil painting on oak panel by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), dimensions 43.1 cm x 32 cm, currently located at Pushkin Museum, Moscow.

The incident of ‘Cleansing of the Temple’ occurs in all four Gospels in the New Testament. It occurs near the end of the Synoptic Gospels (Mark 11:15-19, 11:27-33; Matthew 21:12-17, 21:23-27; Luke 19:45-48, 20:1-8; and John 2:13-16). Jesus visited the Temple in Jerusalem, Herod's Temple, where the courtyard was filled with livestock and the tables of the moneychangers, who changed the Greek and Roman money for Jewish and Tyrian money, which were the only coinage used in Temple ceremonies. Creating a whip from some cords, ‘he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. But he said to those who sold doves, ‘Get these out of here! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!’ (John 2:13-16).

“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” - Matthew 21:12-13