| Author |
 Replies: 40 / Views: 5,222 |
|
Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
Hi all,
I recently got a pound of mixed coins, and while most of them are great, a few of them gave me pause, in particular, one of them has Francisco Franco on it. There are also coins from the USSR, Angola (while it was still a Portuguese colony), apartheid South Africa, and a UK farthing from the 1920s. All of these can only make me think of the suffering and terrible things these coins saw (which is a strange thing to think, I know). Does anyone else feel this way about certain coins? What do you do with coins that give you the willies?
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
615 Posts |
I look at it a different way. Everything from the past is simply that, it's history. Simply owning say a Nazi-era coin doesn't make you a supporter of the Third Reich. I admit there are people who do use such things for nostalgia's sake, but to me it's merely history, and is appreciated as such.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2661 Posts |
Quote:
I look at it a different way. Everything from the past is simply that, it's history. Simply owning say a Nazi-era coin doesn't make you a supporter of the Third Reich. I admit there are people who do use such things for nostalgia's sake, but to me it's merely history, and is appreciated as such.  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Well, I havent got some coins in my collection due to family history. Its just not appropriate for me to own anything from WWII Soviet Russia or Germany.
Other than that - I find coins from troubled times interesting - when condition dimishes and inflation occurs. Its extra history and its pretty interesting. Really Late roman coins are all tiny and low quality - it shows what happened to Rome.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
615 Posts |
At the slight risk of offending someone here, I apologize in advance. My family has a prominent Jewish background, and I'm not ashamed to own several... interesting pieces in my collection. It's not something I display for friends and family, it's not something I celebrate, it is just a small piece of history that by me owning it, is not celebrating certain historical events. I'm a WWII nut, and I've always been interested in the political scene.
That being said, there are some things I refuse to sell locally, just based on the sole fact you will bring say, neo-nazis out of the woodwork. I don't particularly enjoy dealing with those people.
History is history. As long as it's not touted as something to celebrate or champion whatever history it was a part of, it remains as a piece of history.
(If you haven't guessed, I'm a very strong advocate of not hiding anything away, I've always believed history is history and should be treated as such)
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
what I like about my coins is how much I can learn from them: art; history; geography; politics; metallurgy ...
And I can handle them: they are tangible links with events of long ago.
I collect by year, mostly associated with significant events in my family's history, so that I can show my sons the coins that might (repeat: might) have been in our ancestors' pockets when these events happened.
Regarding "horrible places": I have acquired a few coins - some would call them tokens - made for use in places under seige, or in PW camps or similar. Their history seems so much more intense.
When I show my old coins to non-numismatic friends, they seem surprized that 200-year-old items can be handled so readily (no slabs for me !). I hand them a contemporary counterfeit, to compare to the genuine article ... and then I point out that, upto 1832, possession of a counterfeit carried the death penalty. And for the ladies (a legal anomaly), that was inflicted by burning at the stake. The last hanging, according to my research, seems to be 1828, and my collection focusses on 1820.
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
History is history. As long as it's not touted as something to celebrate or champion whatever history it was a part of, it remains as a piece of history.
(If you haven't guessed, I'm a very strong advocate of not hiding anything away, I've always believed history is history and should be treated as such) Like you I am a WWII nut and also a Civil War nut. I have a couple Nazi coins and some restrikes from confederate coins. The historical aspect of these coins is just amazing to me and I think it would be a shame if all of them were to be destroyed because of what they were. If nothing else they are a strong reminder of what can happen in the world and will happen again at some point as history has taught us. I'm not ashamed to own them because I wasnt a part of what brought them to exist in the first place, theyre just history to me. |
|
Pillar of the Community
Australia
2180 Posts |
Never really thought about it like that, but I guess a vast majority of my coins come from times of peace.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2661 Posts |
Sheep, let me put it into perspective for you. Do you own any U.S. coins minted prior to 1866? If so you own coins from a dark time our fore fathers, as a young nation either fostered or endured. The time of 1861-1865 was the worst of these dark times as the political climate pitted brother against brother in all out war. But yet the best designs of U.S. coinage came from this period in our nations history. Does it compare to some of the examples you stated? Not so much, but still lots of unwarranted pain, suffering, and out right slaughter of innocent people happened here during that period whether we like to admit it or not.
Edited by Tim Stroud
03/02/2013 8:33 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
615 Posts |
It's quite ironic you chose the Civil War, I'm working through about 40 Civil War tokens and store cards for my upcoming week. :)
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Im jealous hippie Id love to start an album of those just havent gotten around to it
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
HippieOutcast: I have visited to Dachau Concentration Camp, which is set up as it originally was. Only now, it is a memorial to the horrendous Jewish suffering that went on there.
Having said that, I have seen Warsaw Ghetto coins and notes come up for auction occasionally, and at least, from a numismatic point of view, and they do retain significant historic numismatic interest.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
615 Posts |
Sel_691: That's on my bucket list. I think it would be an incredible moving experience to visit such a site. I also would like to walk the beaches at Normandy. Closest I've ever come was walking through what's left of The Alamo in San Antonio Texas.
|
|
Valued Member
 United States
154 Posts |
Wow! Thank you all for your thoughts, and I'm glad I could strike up a good discussion.
@Tim Stroud I have a dateless 2 cent piece, but I can think of plenty of other terrible things that have happened in our history besides the Civil War. Jim Crow, Japanese internment, dropping 2 nuclear bombs, Vietnam. For me, that history is already too much a part of me, and I have to face it. So I guess I agree with others, that it is all of these terrible events are part of history, and there is no sense in ignoring it, but that doesn't stop the coins I mentioned from giving me the creeps.
|
|
Valued Member
United States
386 Posts |
@HippieOutcast: Good post.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3486 Posts |
Sheep,
Thank you for having the courage to bring up a difficult subject.
Let's take a rational look:
1) Coins are a window into history.
2) We all look through different windows.
3) If we do not like what we see, of if what we see offends us, we can choose not to look further.
And I keep coming back to the wisdom:
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
To speak to the question of coins from the Nazi era:
Often we are urged to "never forget."
Without preserving the monuments of hate and the coins which fueled the machine of war
we would be deliberately turning our backs on those who have suffered.
Just something to think about.
Edited by matthewvincent
03/03/2013 6:08 pm
|
| |
Replies: 40 / Views: 5,222 |
Posted 03/02/2013 6:02 pm
