The newest of BRFC's "weird coins." I love these things, and I hope you like them too!
Carry it as a reminder that you must die (hopefully not today) so you should live fully, and also as a way to pay the boatman.
Inspired by the philosophical ideal of Memento Mori - the concept that you must die one day. While some may find this morbid, I love the idea that embracing this can lead us to living more fully and in the present. Life is finite, and so you should live it.
The imagery pulls from various sources - while a skull is an obvious indication of death, the weeping willow is borrowed from classic tombstone symbology, which can serve to indicate grief and mourning, and also just remembrance. The cut out symbolizes both the sun and the moon, and can be used to carry this coin on a chain, on yourself, or your keys, or wherever. The sky on the obverse shows both a bright sunny scene and a dark cloudy scene, since life obviously has them all.
The sparrow on the obverse, and the cat on the reverse are both examples of animal psychopomps - beings which certain mythologies believe help guide souls. The primary image on the reverse is my take on the boatman of the afterlife (named Charon in at least one mythology), who is also a psychopomp, taking souls across a river (Styx in at least one case) to the underworld).
Classically, one needs a way to pay to boatman when they cross the river, so my idea is that this coin could serve as that payment as well. At times coins were placed in a deceased person's mouth or on the eyes for this purpose, and referred to as "Charon's Obol," so call this your Obol if you will.
Finally, the style of this coin owes a debt to the practice of making "Hobo Nickels" which is a sculptural art form practiced by carving alternate images into existing coins. (Here's a resource on that! https://www.hobonickels.org/ )
I think that's all I have to say about that... Thanks for reading this if you did!