Art Mint continues its four-coin journey through the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, with Sylph, the Air Elemental. We’ve covered the first two issues, Earth/Gnome, and Water/Undine, in previous articles, and Air/Sylph follows that tight design ethos to the letter, and the principles laid out by the 16th century Swiss physician, alchemist-philosopher, Paracelsus, created during the German Renaissance. Fortunately, it’s a very attractive one.

The concept of the sylph, an air spirit, was actually brought to life by Paracelsus, and have had a significant influence on art and literature since then. He described them in his seminal work, Liber de Nymphis, he describes them as being the closest of the Elementals to humans, able to move through the air, but being burnt by fire, drowning in water, and getting stuck in earth, but also being stronger, and coarser. We noted with Undine that it was the name of a British submarine, and that continues, with HMS Sylph, a WWI R-Class destroyer. Weirdly, on her way to being towed to the breakers, HMS Sylph broke free, and ran aground in wild weather. Spooky…

The coin is another beauty, making a great pairing with Undine in particular, although that will balance out when the last coin, Fire/Salamander, launches, and will no doubt pair nicely with the Earth/Gnome coin. The naked Sylph is depicted aloft, creating, and being carried by powerful winds. To the left and right of this central triangle, are antique finished sylph’s, done in a more stylised form of art. Inset at the bottom, is a crystal, representing the air.

The common obverse, divided into four segments, one for each elemental, surrounding a central issue area, returns. The serial number, only 300 will be struck, is also engraved on the edge. Beautiful coin, it’s available to order now. We look forward to seeing the Salamander design in due course.

MINTS DESCRIPTION: A sylph (also called sylphid) is an air spirit stemming from the 16th-century works of Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as (invisible) beings of the air, his elementals of air. A significant number of subsequent literary and occult works have been inspired by Paracelsus’s concept. In the Liber de Nymphis of the Philosophia Magna, Paracelsus discusses the characteristics of the elementals at length. Sylphs, he says, are rougher, coarser, taller, and stronger than humans. The elementals are said to be able to move through their own elements as human beings move through air. Because of this, sylphs are the closest to humans in his conception because they move through air like we do, while in fire they burn, in water they drown, and in earth, they get stuck.

Symbol of knowledge, perception, communication, creativity, and strategy. Air is the element of life itself as all living creatures, both plants and animals, require air to live and thrive. Air is warm, moist, and provides the mind and body with energy. The air element can be found all around us, but its most visible manifestation is through breezes or winds. Air is associated with the season of spring, sunrise, and the cardinal direction east and is depicted through yellow, blue, white, and grey. It is associated with the mythical sylph or giant. The air element is associated with planet Jupiter, and the corresponding zodiac signs are Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. Air is a powerful, masculine element, and is symbolized by a triangle or a pyramid pointing upwards, towards the skies, with a horizontal line near the top.