Obverse. Photo © acsaerch.info
  • 50 Pounds 1990, KM# 680, Egypt, 1990 Football (Soccer) World Cup in Italy
  • 50 Pounds 1990, KM# 680, Egypt, 1990 Football (Soccer) World Cup in Italy
Description

The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Mexico in 1986). Teams representing 116 national football associations entered and qualification began in April 1988. 22 teams qualified from this process, along with host nation Italy and defending champions Argentina.

The tournament was won by West Germany, for the third time. They beat Argentina 1–0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, a rematch of the previous final four years earlier. Italy finished third and England fourth, after both lost their semi-finals in penalty shootouts.

Obverse

Depicts standing goddesses Isis and Nyphtes in front of the Pyramid in the background and above a football surrounded by inscriptions in English.

Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BC) as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her slain brother and husband, the divine king Osiris, and produces and protects his heir, Horus. She was believed to help the dead enter the afterlife as she had helped Osiris, and she was considered the divine mother of the pharaoh, who was likened to Horus. Her maternal aid was invoked in healing spells to benefit ordinary people. Originally, she played a limited role in royal rituals and temple rites, although she was more prominent in funerary practices and magical texts. She was usually portrayed in art as a human woman wearing a throne-like hieroglyph on her head. During the New Kingdom (c. 1550 – c. 1070 BC), as she took on traits that originally belonged to Hathor, the preeminent goddess of earlier times, Isis was portrayed wearing Hathor's headdress: a sun disk between the horns of a cow.

Nephthys or Nebet-Het was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set.

She was associated with mourning, the night/darkness, service (specifically temples), childbirth, the dead, protection, magic, health, embalming, and beer.

XIV. FOOTBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ITALIA 1990

Reverse

Denomination in Arabic and English divides the date in Arabic (Hijri) and Western (Georgian) above mirrored wings around the country name (Arab Republic of Egypt) and inscription in Arabic below. The abbreviation of the state name (ARE) above wings.

١٤١٠ ١٩٩٠
٥٠
جـ
50 LE
ARE
جمهورية مصر العربية

Edge
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Non-circulating)
Material Gold
Fineness 0.900
Weight 8.5 g
Diameter 24 mm
Thickness -
Shape round
Alignment Medal

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