Sunday, June 03, 2007

Symbols.com

Symbols.com is a web site based on symbol dictionaries by Carl G. Luingman. Using it, I was able to quickly locate symbols similar to the mystery )( symbol (discussed previously here and here):

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/08/0814.html
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/08/0812.html

Unfortunately, neither symbol has a numismatic connection or name. So I'm stuck again.

Symbols.com's graphic index is an interesting presentation of a query-able symbol dictionary. Such a dictionary would be useful for identifying ancient symbols, such as on coins. I'm imagining augmenting the 'obverse symbol' and 'reverse symbol' field in coin databases by using Luingman's group numbers for mysterious symbols, such as triskeles, ankhs, etc.

3 comments:

Robert J. said...

Since the first symbol seems to stand for the substance Realgar could it for that reason have been chosen as a symbol for REverse?

(This is a fascinating little topic you've discovered. Congratulations for following it up.)

Have you tried posting on any typography boards? I don't know one that would be appropriate, but there must be some out there.

Ed Snible said...

So far I have only asked Chris Hopkins, creator of the Numismatica font. The question will be going out in next week's e-Sylum. I am hoping someone there will know, or at least be able to suggest places to follow-up.

Robert J. said...

Here's a collection of alchemical symbols, including the )( symbol for Realgar:

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/alchemical_symbols00.html