[Red Badger]

The Legend of the Sand Dollar

Margaret C. Gallitzin

It is difficult to find a shell so rich in symbolism as the sand dollar. When I was a girl, I saw my first sand dollar – which I later learned was called the key hole sand dollar – and my uncle, a priest, explained to me how it represented the story of the Birth, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I never forgot that lesson of how to see God in visible Creation.

front sand dollar

The sand dollar - front above, and back below

sand dollar back

The sand dollar is flat-looking burrowing sea urchin belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. It lives on the floor of shallow sandy waters along the coasts of ocean waters in the Northern Hemisphere. The mollusks are washed up on Oregon Coast beaches regularly.

After the urchin is washed up on the beach and bleached by the sun, it looks like a large silver coin, such as the old Spanish or American dollar. Ergo, its simple American name. In other places it is known as the sea biscuit or pansy shell.

It was not long, however, before a legend rich in Catholic symbolism developed about the poorly named sand dollar. This was the story my uncle told me:

On the top part of the shell you can clearly see in the center a star, which represents the Star of Bethlehem that led the Wise Men to the manger when Christ was born. Around it is the outline of the Easter lily, a sign of Our Lord’s Resurrection.

At the edges of the star are four holes and in the center another one. These remind us of the four Sacred Wounds of Our Lord on His Hands and Feet that He bore after being nailed to the Cross. A center hole, the fifth, represents the pierce Wound to His Sacred Heart made by the spear of Longinus.

If you turn the sand dollar over, you will find an outline of the Poinsetta, the Christmas flower.

doves

The sand dollar always has five doves inside

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Finally, if you break open the sand dollar, five "doves" emerge – the doves of the Peace and Joy of Christmas. There are always five doves every time you open one.

Many poems have been written about the legend of the sand dollar. This one, author unknown, is my favorite:

The legend of the Sand dollar That I would like to tell Of the birth and death of Jesus Christ Found in this lowly shell.

If you will examine closely, You'll see that you find here Four nail holes and a fifth one Made by a Roman's spear.

On one side the Easter Lily, It's center is the star That appeared unto the shepherds And led them from afar.

The Christmas Poinsettia Etched on the other side Reminds us of His birthday, Our joyous Christmas tide.

Now break the center open And here you will release The five white doves awaiting To spread good will and peace.

This simple little symbol, Christ left for you and me. To help to spread His Message Through all eternity.

[blueplum]

This is the first time I ever knew there were ‘doves’ inside the sand dollar. How cool is that?!

[georgiegirl]

Beautiful poem! I have never heard this beautiful story.

[ADSUM]

Hope your recovery is going well.

thought you would enjoy this Catholic story.

[a fool in paradise]

Was this sand dollar the boy found still alive?

[PfromHoGro]

Kewl. ‘Will take a close look at ours tonight.

[fidelis]

As a boy in the late 1960’s, I remember finding large numbers of fossilized sand dollars in the hills in and around San Diego. Those areas are probably now under miles of housing tracts.

[Gamecock]

the sand dollar is being kept safe in a box until it can be examined by Guinness World Records

The real authority would be a Marine Biologist.

[BikerTrash]

bumpmark

[SamAdams76]

I’ve got a bunch of these that I collected off the beaches of Marco Island. I’m pretty sure some of them are close to six inches in diameter.

[SkyDancer]

I’d walk the beach here in WA and collect a whole bag of them, and in pristine condition. Some I had to bleach but normally not. I’d pass them out.

[dawn67yo]

We grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida(6th generation Floridians,our kids are 7th generation, and now their kids who stay in Florida are 8th generation) On sandbars there might be dozens and they were easy to find, just feel around the sand with your toes.

There was no “conservation” info back then, I don’t think we even realized they were alive, we thought of them as shells, so we would take a few home. Once you took them home they would turn brown, I think a mild bleach wash kept them white, the purpose of bringing them home was for display in your room, or make a necklace, but they were pretty fragile for that. We knew there were 5 doves, but we didn’t want a broken sand dollar, so we never broke them.)

We always spent a couple weeks in the summer on a “staycation” at the beach. My dad still drove in to work everyday, and we’d stay at a rented cottage at the beach. It was the only vacation we could afford,because my dad could still work, but come back to the cottage once he was off, and do some surf fishing.

It was the only vacation we took for all of my growing up days. This was back in the 50’s and 60s and no big hotels at the beach, only a few. Mostly there were little cottages or duplexes. You put a pan with water at the front door so you could dunk your feet on the way in and keep from sweeping up sand as often.

Morning walks on the beach, we’d find all sorts of things, going inside everyday from 11-2 so we wouldn’t get “too” burned, surf fishing, collecting coquinas to make coquina soup, using a seine net and being amazed what we’d find, watching mullet fisherman pull in their huge net right up to the beach, going to bed with the small of Noxema on your sunburned shoulders and face, the sting of sunburn on your back, and feeling the gritting sand when you put your body into the sheets (no matter how hard you had tried to get it shaken out earlier in the day.)

Thanks for the sand dollar post, it was a walk down memory lane for me.

[Cobra64]

Worthless photo.

[mass55th]

I’ve got a sand dollar that measures 5 1/2” by 5 1/2”. I bought it in a shop somewhere while I was on vacation.

[jacknhoo]

Thanks for spreading His message. That’s just beautiful. I’m certainly going to help spread that.

[Track9]

Im waiting for the sea unicorn.

[IndispensableDestiny]

The toughest part with sand dollars is getting them home in one piece. I collected many along the Oregon coast, at Haystack Rock.

[slouper]

Silly picture, absolutely useless with no scale. It could be 1 inch in diameter.

[GulfMan]

Fools, nothing in the pic to give it scale. Yawn

[Wayne07]

for scale: