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 Replies: 75 / Views: 17,716 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4883 Posts |
Earlier this week the 75th anniversary of the start of World War II was observed. Feel free to post images of your coins from that fateful year. I'll start it off with an especially distasteful issue, Germany's 50 Pfennig. This is actually the first year that the swastika was incorporated into the design for this denomination, but its presence is an indication of how thoroughly the Nazis had subverted the functions of the state by that time. It has always intrigued me that given the cult of personality that attached to Hitler, his visage did not appear on the Third Reich's coinage, which generally was aesthetically insipid and sterile. One might've thought that Hitler, who fancied himself an artist and a keen judge of sculpture, or Goebbels, who was always looking for outlets through which the regime could be glorified, would've taken an interest in this area, but apparently neither ever did.   Colligo ergo sum
Edited by Lucky Cuss
09/03/2014 7:45 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Here are the only 1939 coins produced by Latvia:   Apparently, these didn't circulate very much because subsequently, in 1940, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union and ultimately annexed. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
quote: "It has always intrigued me that given the cult of personality that attached to Hitler, his visage did not appear on the Third Reich's coinage ..."
- that has always struck me as odd, too. But, as I understand it, he appeared on a lot of postage stamps - which, again, makes me wonder, why not the coinage as well ?
Then again, no-one ever accused him of being smart ...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2637 Posts |
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Moderator
 Australia
16827 Posts |
Quote:
It has always intrigued me that given the cult of personality that attached to Hitler, his visage did not appear on the Third Reich's coinage ...
- that has always struck me as odd, too. But, as I understand it, he appeared on a lot of postage stamps - which, again, makes me wonder, why not the coinage as well ?It is my understanding that Hitler saw coinage portraiture as a distinctly "royal" prerogative, which for the most part was true for European coinage back in 1939. While he presumably saw himself as ultimately founding a new German Imperial dynasty, he was unwilling to claim the trappings and titles of royalty until he had succeeded where the previous German Emperors had failed: in winning the war. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
1939 China, Japanese Puppet State  1939 Slovakia  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4883 Posts |
Quote:
It is my understanding that Hitler saw coinage portraiture as a distinctly "royal" prerogative, which for the most part was true for European coinage back in 1939. While he presumably saw himself as ultimately founding a new German Imperial dynasty, he was unwilling to claim the trappings and titles of royalty until he had succeeded where the previous German Emperors had failed: in winning the war. Well, that would then be one of the very few instances in which he repressed his megalomania. Colligo ergo sum
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17931 Posts |
1939 Great Britain set from my album. No especially rare coins, no hint of what was just about to come...  Edited by NumisRob
09/04/2014 02:50 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I suspect that after Hitler saw his image on stamps he said AHHHHHHHHHH. That ended any possible images of himself on coins.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
4227 Posts |
Here's a '39 I have on my desk right now.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9401 Posts |
Portugal One Escudo  India Half Pice  Brazil 1000 Reis  Malaya 20 Cents  Philippines One Centavo  Belgium One Franc  Steve  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4883 Posts |
German 5 Reichsmarks, commemorating the passing of Paul von Hindenburg, who as the German President had reluctantly appointed Hitler Chancellor in 1933. These are silver coins, but downsized from the "crown" standard, each containing just four tenths of an ounce of silver. They bear swatikas, which while this denomination orginally did not, it had now for a few years by this time. The mint marks represented here are "A" and "B", signifying their being struck at Berlin and Vienna, respectively. On the edge is inscribed "Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz" which roughly translates to "Common good goes before self-interest" which seems to be a fairly typical Nazi precept.   Colligo ergo sum
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4883 Posts |
Dutch 2½ Guilders, depicting Queen Wilhelmina. The Netherlands remained neutral in the First World War, after which Wilhemina had afforded asylum to the former Kaiser Wilhelm II. In World War Two, Germany occupied Holland and Wilhelmina was forced to flee to Great Britain and conduct a government in exile until liberation (it's a lttle known fact that the British actually offered Wilhelm refuge also, but while he was ambivalent in his feelings about the Nazis, he refused).   Colligo ergo sum
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Valued Member
United States
58 Posts |
France, 1939 50 centimes.   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4883 Posts |
Quote:
They bear swatikas, which while this denomination orginally did not, it had now for a few years by this time. Just to correct the record, I somewhat misspoke on this point. The earliest 1935-36 dated Hindenburg design coins (there was also a 2 RM denomination) had a eagle sans swastika on the reverse. The pre-Hindenburg Potsdam Church obverse version of these coins (1934-35) already had two small swastikas on the reverse, albeit not as an integral part of the heraldic eagle as was the case with the later Hindenburg variety. Colligo ergo sum
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Replies: 75 / Views: 17,716 |
Posted 09/03/2014 8:13 pm
