Infamous Regimes

A country's infamy is only relative to the period in history and the people being suppressed.

England, Spain, Portugal, United States, Australia, South Africa, all could be classed as imfamous countries that suppressed, raped, enslaved, murdered the indigenous peoples of the lands they occuppied or ruled over. History is full of brutality. It is not limited to that which occurred in our lifetime in some other country other than our own.

Certainly "infamy" is a point of perception. Hugo Chavez is an extremely unpopular person in the US for his remarks about Bush (not completely unfounded) but I certainly respect the man for his support for his country and countrymen against being taken advantage of by outside interests. It is just an interesting aspect of the hobby to collect coins from important periods of history, especially infamous periods (they grab our attention). We certainly have a history of brutality and deprivation of human rights as do most countries. We actually have Confderate States Of America currency from our Civil War in the 1860s and that certainly would qualify as an infamous period of US history.

I collect coins from Nazi Germany (1936-1945) and almost have a full set of each coin from each mint. I am missing 10 coins to complete my set.

Was very surprised at the number of coins from this era including a few commemoratives.

If you are ever after any from Nazi Germany I have a number of duplicates.

In the meantime will keep searching for the missing ones.

hehe Libertad, I was referring to the idea of regimes when I made that broma..

A tyrant from the Dark Ages the Byzantine emperor Phocas who's reign of terror lasted 8 years from 602-608AD

Image: phocas.jpg
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I had considered Zimbabwe but had yet to look. There are many historical regimes that it would be interesting to have coinage from. I do have some ancients but have yet to look through the m for these "leaders (yeah right)". As for the Dubya dollar in 10 years, the joke is it will be worth less than face value when it comes out. I don't know, infamous leaders draw interst and value in items.

Did Mussolini appear on any coins?

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You can, however, find plenty of coins with the fasces, the axe-and-rods badge of the party, on the reverse.

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True, but that symbol has been used in many other countries as well. Between the two world wars, for example, the lictors bundle was on the US dime too.

(Sure, the German nazis also adopted the swastika instead of "inventing" it. But in Italy, France and many other European countries, the fasces has a long tradition as a symbol of - controlled - power.)

On some coins of "Italian Albania", king Vittorio Emanuele wears a helmet which can be understood as a symbol of the occupation. But those pieces do not have Mussolini either.

Christian