Bees have appeared on coins for millennia, hinting at an age-old link between sweetness and value

• Around 2,400 years earlier, a mint in the kingdom of Macedon had the same idea, creating a silver obol coin with a bee stamped on one side.
• Over the centuries between these two events, currency demonstrating a symbolic link between honey and money is surprisingly common.

What is currency and why is it important?

• Currency is a physical manifestation of money, so coins are a durable representation of value.
• A bee and honeycomb are shown on the 3 Mils coin, symbolising the fact that honey was used as currency in Ancient Malta.
• The use of bees on ancient coins extended for many centuries including widely circulated bronze coins, and new varieties continue to be discovered.

Why we might like bees on coins

• Our brain may thus be pre-adapted to liking bees due to their association with the sweet taste of honey.
• Early usage of bees on coins may have been a functional illustration of the link between a known value (honey) and a new form of currency: coins as money.

The bee on modern coins

• The use of bees as a design feature has persisted from ancient to modern times.
• A honeybee visiting a flower is shown on a series of ten-centesimi bronze coins issued in Italy from 1919 to 1937.

Bees on coins, today and tomorrow

• Public awareness of bees and environmental sustainability may well be factors in the current interest in bee coins.
• The diversity of countries using bees as a design feature over the entire history of coins suggests people have valued the relationship with bees as essential to our own prosperity for a long time.