Yugoslavia~the Twilight Years

The following two coins are from the SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA. The first is a 1,000 Dinara silver commemorative for the 'Death of Josip Broz Tito (known as Marshall Tito) in 1980. Tito, who was the communist ruler of Yugoslavia since 1945, created many policies that decentralized the government and gave each of the six (initially five) republics equal status. While not perfect, it kept the peace in the region. However, following Tito's death, there was no successor to carry on his work. This lead to Yugoslavia's slow downward spiral to disintegration. By the late 1980's, Serbian ultra-nationalist Slobodan Milosevic, began to undo everything that Tito had achieved. In 1989, he used the 600th anniversary of the 'Battle of Kosovo' to stir up Serbian nationalism, and caused Serbia to take a more dominant stance. Milosevic undermined the Yugoslav parliament and military, by trying to place it under Serbian domination. This caused serious tensions with the neighboring republics which came to a head with the secession of Slovenia and Croatia in 1991 and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia in 1992. This sparked a civil war which left portions of Croatia and most of Bosnia in ruins. In the end, Serbia and Montenegro was all that remained of Yugoslavia. The second coin is 5 Dinara dated 1992. It bears the coat-of-arms for the six republic federation, but was issued for what was already a defunct nation.



YUGOSLAVIA (SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~1,000 Dinara 1980



YUGOSLAVIA (SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~5 Dinara 1992