"Souvenir of an Invasion": WW1 German trench art on 1904 Belgian 10-centime coin

"Souvenir of an Invasion": WW1 German trench art on 1904 Belgian 10-centime coin

Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture

Host coin: 1904 Belgium 10-centimes, KM53.
Obverse: host coin details unaltered, red (glass?) "jewel" mounted in original center hole. Bail ring mounted at top.
Reverse: host design planed off, re-engraved in German: "Feldzug in Belgien [Campaign in Belgium] 1914-1915", iron cross at left.

Ex- "acsb-rich", eBay, 03/17/2017.

I've had some interesting pieces of World War I "trench art" coins come and go in recent years, but this is the first piece with German engraving I've had, and also the first "love token" piece I've had with a mounted stone in it. (I've always kind of liked those, but one has eluded me until now). It was rather stiffly priced and the seller drove a hard bargain, but after some deliberation I decided to go for it.

This coin was probably made into a souvenir for a German soldier to send home to his mother or sweetheart. Though there is no name nor initials to associate it with an individual soldier, it does describe itself as a relic of the German campaign in Belgium ("Feldzug in Belgien") in 1914 and 1915.

The 1914 German invasion of Belgium was a brutal affair and there were a number of atrocities, though these were somewhat exaggerated by British and French propaganda. Many civilians were killed and cultural sites destroyed.

Eventually the German advance was checked by Allied forces and the war along the Western Front devolved into the muddy stalemate in the trenches we so often see depicted in films today.

Of course the Germans learned their lesson and never invaded Belgium again.

Haha. If only that were true! The Nazi blitzkrieg swept through again in 1940.

 

Bumping this old thread back up into the sunlight, just because. (I came here to find it because I was linking up to it from a recent discussion about another 1904 Belgian 10-centimes piece.)

 

Hi, Pam! Sure, message me by all means! Thanks for resurrecting this old thread. It was fun to see it again.

 

I have seen you post it many times but didn’t know it had a D-Day association. I’ve seen other Lord’s Prayer pieces which seemed to be earlier; more from the Edwardian era or WW1-ish. Never noticed that tiny engraved 19/44 date on yours until just now. Cool.

 

If y’all found this mini-article interesting, there are several others I wrote around the same time, which could use some dusting off.

On the WW1 theme alone:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/vesta-mccurrys-ww1-love-token-coin-is-going-home.329215/.

( ^ That one had some really cool developments after I posted it- read on through the thread.)

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/be...fallen-canadian-soldier-to-his-mother.286034/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/th...isc-made-from-1916-british-half-crown.287381/

And that’s just the WW1 pieces. I wrote a bunch of these articles back when I first became active on this site. I once posted an index somewhere. I’ll have to see if I can dig that up.

Edit: aha! Here, if you want to read more of my “story” threads. Maybe reply to some of the ones you find interesting (if you don’t mind?), so they can see some sunlight again?

Thanks for reading!

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/in...-about-love-tokens-and-engraved-coins.384360/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ol...tory-threads-coin-collection-archives.298120/

 

No, thank you.