Clemens of Alexandria affirms in his Instructor (Paedagogus): «Passion is not nature, and passion is wont to deface the form (παραχαράττειν), not to cast it into a new shape (μετακοσμεῖν)» (Translated by W. Wilson). In this thesis the use of the words παραχαράττειν and παραχάραγμα is considered and the one possible source of the image of a coin in the early Christian literature is offered.