The 100th anniversary of the St. Petersburg Mint

If Sköll drives the daytime luminary, then at night the sky belongs to another hunter. Hati Hróðvitnisson is the wolf who, according to Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, chases Máni, the Moon, as it travels across the night sky. The name Hati means "he who hates" or "enemy", and the patronymic Hróðvitnisson shows that he is a son of Hróðvitnir, "famous wolf", which is what the poems call Fenrir. In the Grímnismál and in the Gylfaginning this kinship is stated directly. Beside Hati another name appears in the sources: Mánagarmr, the "Moon-Hound". Snorri calls him the mightiest of the offspring of the giantess of the Ironwood and says he will swallow the Moon and gorge on the flesh of the dead. Most likely it is another byname of Hati or of his brother, taken by Snorri from folk tales. It is worth noting that the Moon in this tradition is personified too: Máni is a god, not merely a light in the sky. The grimmest lines about the lunar wolf are in the Völuspá, the prophecy of the seeress. The seeress tells Odin that in the east an old woman in the forest Járnviðr fostered the broods of Fenrir, and from them one will come forth as a "moon-snatcher in troll's skin". He will sate himself on the life of doomed men and spatter the heavenly halls with blood. The image is sharp and vivid: the night chase ends not in a quiet sunset but in a predator's feast. The difference between the brothers matters for the whole story. Sun and Moon are day and night, warmth and cold, clarity and mystery; the two wolves guard the borders of the day and each holds his half of the world in fear. While the race goes on, day and night follow one another as usual. But the Eddas insist that the term is set. When Hati overtakes Máni, the night will no longer end, and this will be one of the omens of Ragnarök. For the Scandinavians this tale explained what they saw overhead. The Moon wanes as if bitten away and then grows again; a howl is clearly heard in the night. The chase looked not like a fairy tale but like an eternal labour to which both fugitive and pursuer are condemned. Mythologists add one more detail. In the mint's account of Ragnarök the first sound is the barking of Garm, the hound of the underworld; then Loki and Fenrir break their bonds and Heimdall blows the horn Gjallarhorn. The lunar wolf is part of this chorus: his howl joins the common summons to the last battle. At the same time it carries a warning: even the most familiar thing in the world may be not permanent but merely postponed by fate, and Ragnarök, the "doom of the gods", appears as a reckoning and a renewal after which the world will nonetheless be reborn.

Obverse

The artistic side is devoted to Hati: the wolf closes in on the Moon that flies ahead of him across the sky. The accent here is nocturnal and lunar: the hunted Moon stands out against the dark ground while the wolf strains after her. The inscription HATI and runes frame the picture; the designer is Kinga Sabatowicz. Black silver with a dark layer applied before striking emphasises the mood of night, and the capture of the luminary, as with his brother, means the beginning of the end.

Reverse

On the official side the double-headed eagle, the coat of arms of Germania Mint, stands beside a symbol of the Moon, the counterpart of the sun on the Sköll coin. The legends are GERMANIA, 2024, "1 oz Ag 999.9" and the denomination 5 MARK; the denomination is ceremonial, and the coin is issued for collectors. This is the second half of a pair: the mint calls the coin the first of the new Ragnarök series, alongside Sköll. The denomination and fineness are given on the same side as the year.

Issue

The coin belongs to the Ragnarök series of the Germania Mint: silver rounds of .9999 fineness based on the Norse tale of the fall of the gods. Version — 1 oz, black silver; finish: black silver (blackened “Black BU” finish). Pure silver weight — 31.1 g, diameter — 38.61 mm, BU quality, mintage according to the mint — 5000. Designed by Kinga Sabatowicz. The piece is not legal tender: the GERMANIA legend and the denomination in marks are of a collectible nature.