How Far Back Can We Go? Second Edition! Ended At 1492 Waiting On 1491

This thread is getting better and better

Big silver from Monaco
High grade Walking Lib

and Fuzzy ...is that the first gold posted

the last year of the Mercury dimes....

Here's my 1945 Walking Liberty half dollar:

I will let it slide this time, but consider rule number 7, "One coin per person per year, unless part of a set. That is, one person should not create multiple posts for each year." Rules are rules, right...


Uh, what was I saying?

I am a sucker for copper, and history.

I'm struggling to get the point of this rule. Help me out here.
I thought the point of the thread was to show coins.
What difference does it make if more than one is shown by the same person? It's just more eye candy and that's a bonus,eh. So far there doesn't seem to be any overwhelming tendency to flood the thread with multiple images.

Can the 'Rule #7' be modified to allow for multiple non-related coins within a single post? If not, I for one am going to have to make a lot of exclusionary choices as we move into the pre-WW2 years.

Great history lesson, nalaberong.

yes, anyone can play xshift

we just need to follow jbuck's rules, mostly

The nicest 1945 coin I own (MS65)--and my only "Mecury Dime"--thanks to Secret Santa!

I'll kick off 1944 with a nice piece of occupation zinc...



Fooled you! Yes, it's a wartime zinc coin, and yes, it replaced pre-war coins of the same denomination, but Switzerland was never occupied during World War II. Switzerland is a scary place.

In 1939, Switzerland was fully mobilized in just three days, and a general was elected (in peacetime, Switzerland maintains no military officer with a rank above three-star general). The entire country was packed with remote Alpine fortresses, disguised heavy artillery, and the National Redoubt, a region of extremely well-defended fortresses where the Swiss Army would retreat and cause as much damage as possible to the Germans. Much of this infrastructure is still around today. Hitler's plan to invade the country (Operation Tannenbaum) went with his absurd personal hatred of Switzerland (he really hated it... calling it "a pimple on the face of Europe" and the Swiss "a misbegotten branch of our people"), but he was stymied by the Swiss' terrifying military capability. Switzerland's army had roughly 435,000 troops... not bad for a country with a population of just 4,200,000! Furthermore, everyone in the country was instructed to regard an "official" surrender as enemy propaganda, and to fight individually if necessary. Combined with a high rate of gun ownership and proficiency among civilians, along with a population raised in and prepared to go hiding up in the mountains, an invasion of Switzerland would have been incredibly gory. Operation Tannenbaum never went through, so Switzerland maintained its freedom throughout the entire war - however, the nation was accidentally bombed by Allied planes who had reportedly "gotten lost" and wound up bombing Swiss border towns instead of German border towns. Whoops.

Still, wartime is wartime, so copper small coinage (1 and 2 rappen) was replaced with zinc coins (without any change in design) until 1946. In 1948, copper coinage was re-instated: however, they bore a more simplistic design this time (no more hat, proper shield, or wreath). This design was used until the inevitable demise of small denominations: 2 rappen became unpopular and weird and was discontinued in 1974, and 1 rappen was discontinued in 2006.

Switzerland actually makes sure to this day that every citizen had access to a nuclear bunker, with room to spare. Oh, and every bridge in the country is rigged to explode:
http://www.billdamon.com/switzerlan...N70Uhuy.dpbs