The Libertas Card 1/1
NFT Collectable Ticket
Artist’s Notes:
"Hold this freedom card to heed the call to revolution, equality and liberty hang in the balance, enlightening parallel worlds."
Original Resolution:
Collection: Diamond Hand 2021
NFT Ticket Total: 2,100
Party Access: $250,000 BTC
The Joker
The Libertas Card
Hold this freedom card to heed the call to revolution, equality and freedom hang in the balance, enlightening parallel worlds .
The final cards in the Diamond Hand collection are a set of Diamond Jokers. They come in four different unique colour combinations, packing in a heady mix of dark humour and classical drama. The Libertas Cards are perhaps a strange choice of imagery for Jokers as they show Eleuthera Greek goddess of freedom, personification of independence and personal liberty and certainly no joking matter.
However in a traditional card deck the Joker is a very serious card, as rare as they are unique. They are both mysterious and powerful, true wild cards that stand out from the others. They really are a metaphor for the journey of Bitcoin and that of the HODLer, they are part of, yet separate from the pack. These really are the gems of the pack.
As playing cards, jokers can be the highest or lowest in value, be used to mimic any other card and in Tarot they represent journeys, all endings and all beginnings. Jokers are often depicted as jesters, not clowns, wise fools who inhabit a parallel place in society free from the traditional rules. They, like our modern day Influencers are allowed to speak dangerous truths to those in and around the centres of power. This card emerges from a giant nebula that rushes towards you like a wave of change, while the card itself inhabits the same nebula, yet in another dimension.
Libertas is an allegorical figure, she wears a crown of seven pointed rays of light, like the iconic Statue of Liberty representing the seven continents while behind her glows with the power of a new dawn. Below her crown of light she is blindfolded, unable to be swayed by wealth, power, gender and race, like the blockchain itself, she is bound by only the laws of binary code, while her scales weigh Bitcoin not evidence. They rise and fall symbolising both the base layer protocol and the secondary lightning layer of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Finally, like so many Jokers she holds aloft a jester’s marotte, this pastiche of a royal sceptre is not topped with a crown or a jester's hat, but topped with a Phrygian hat or a liberty cap. In the ultimate irony this is the symbol of power overthrown and freedoms won, of manumission the release from slavery!
This singular NFT captures the nebula that has birthed a revolution from financial slavery and just as the Liberty Cap psychedelic fungus expands our consciousness, so Bitcoin and the blockchain can expand financial possibilities and freedoms across the world.
Delyth Smith BA - Art HistorianSecret Symbolism - A Guide to the Diamond Hand Collection
By our Art Historian - Delyth Smith BA
Playing cards were perfect inspiration for our NFT collectibles.Traditionally the card suits represented the battle of opposing forces and 13 lunar months, this reflects Bitcoin’s battle for acceptance in the financial world and the lunar iconography frequenting Crypto Art.
Our choice of Diamonds gives a nod of respect to the ‘diamond hands’ of the Hodler; the strength to hang on with unshakable belief. Diamonds also reflect the clarity of the blockchain itself, built to be transparent and democratise not centralise and obscure.
Our Diamond suit though, is solid gold not red, minted on the blockchain for eternal value, scarcity, proof of ownership and authenticity. They become a new gold and a new store of value like Bitcoin itself.
Diamonds were fittingly the traditional suit of merchants and commerce, they are also the fire suit, hinting at the burning passion of Bitcoiners. Fire is also symbolic of death and rebirth, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, so Bitcoin rose from the ashes of the 2007 crash, creating a new financial system. Diamonds are also associated with the Fall, reflecting the autumn of Fiat Currency.
All the cards spin in space, where the sun is eclipsed fully by the moon, these are common tropes of Crypto art. The characters all emerge from a nebula, the gas clouds that form stars, echoing the inception of the blockchain and the birth of Bitcoin.
The use of characters and symbolism from ancient myths and legends is inspired by the Renaissance, another era of great change and innovation in art and culture. From one great civilisation invariably another springs anew.