Continuing List To Show Everyones Latest Acquisitions

Bulgaria 1974 10 Stotinki

Czechoslovakia 1977 5 Halere

Great coins guys. Keep em coming. Hokie this is a terrific coin. Congrats.

Thank you GLB and Silverskunk very much appreciated.

Nice addition, otto.

thank you GLB49 and Bryan

Very nice adds to Bryan and otto!

Was visiting family in The Netherlands the last week and decided to go coin shopping and save on "tariffs".

Filling in some currency. The Axis had a real problem with the Greeks. Italy invaded expecting an easy victory only to find the Greeks, assisted by the Brits but mostly the Greeks, with a much smaller force and less equipped, to much for the Italian armed forces whom the Greeks sent running.

Mussolini's forces had already messed up their minor incursion in S/E France giving the French forces their one chance to shine. The French lost some 120 killed or wounded and 150 missing, while Italy suffered 631 dead, 2,631 wounded, 616 missing, and 2,151 frostbite cases. To compound the humiliation, almost 4,000 Italians were captured, and they were the ones invading.

So Mussolini was intent on avenging his honor in Greece and the Balkans but he knew even less about warfare then Hitler did and didn't have the benefit of an accomplished, battle hardened General staff like Germany with its professional Officer corp. . Mussolini considered the Balkans his sphere on influence and incredibly he didn't even tell anyone of his plans to invade Greece until just a few days before he launched the attack.

What followed was disaster and it caused Hitler a valuable late spring month when the roads in Russia were passable to rescue Mussolini's forces and stabilize the Balkans, changing the course of History by "probably" costing the Germans victory in the east by stopping them short of Moscow before winter set in. But we'll never know if this is true. Mussolini sent division sized forces to fight with the Nazi army in southern Russia but they, and the Romanian divisions, were eviscerated by the Russian army during the encirclement of Stalingrad and complete Destruction of the German 6'th Army.

If I may throw another tidbit out there those fresh Soviet forces at Stalingrad were battle hardened troops from the Siberian frontier blooded by border clashes against those of Imperial Japan and were only available due to a highly placed spy in Tokyo reporting Japan had no intention of honoring its pledge to attack the Red Army's divisions in Manchuria and Siberia should war break out against the Axis powers and Stalin's Russia. The Germans never even knew these divisions existed.

The crucial month lost thanks to the brave Greeks is remembered in this bank note even if it was issued a year before the hostilities mentions began. The winds of war were already fanning throughout the world.



This 10 Drachmai note of the Kingdom of Greece is dated April 6, 1940, exactly one year before Nazi German troops invaded Greece and Yugoslavia. The front of the features an ancient Greek coin depicting Demeter, the goddess of harvest and grains. The note replaced the 1930 silver 10 Drachmai coin that depicted the same design. The back depicts the main building of the Academy of Athens, Greece's top university. The neoclassical building was started in 1859 but not competed until 1887. For many years it housed the national numismatic collection before being turned over the newly formed Academy of Athens in 1926. The note was printed by Giesecke & Devrient in Germany and is 83mm x 53mm.