What’s with the fascination?

There is nothing political about disliking nazis and their symbols, everyone should hate nazis. Please keep politics out of this. I'm not talking about the swastika, I'm talking about Americans and their affinity with buying nazi-era coins with the swastika on them under the guise of "preserving history" while flatly ignoring all other German year coins, as well as other WWII era countries. If people could just read and respond to the words I wrote, this conversation wouldn't go down the rabbit hole it has. It almost feels like the dancing around my initial grievance is intentional.

 

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If some people have an affinity for purchasing German coinage of this era I would say it just might be due to it being one of the, if not the major event in world history. Would you feel this way if it would have been confedereate coins instead of third reich coinage? I've read your post four times now, and I don't think you could expect it not to go down a rabbit hole.

 

I'd have been happy to have people respond explaining why they personally collect nazi coinage, or the reasoning for someone they know who does. Instead, people brought up erasing history, started posting photos of swastikas, or began explaining the history of the swastika. None of those comments respond to the concern I raised. People that collect only German swastika coins do not, in fact collect coins because they were a "major event in world history." If they did, they'd also collect French, Poland, or perhaps Belgian (where the war actually ended), they'd collect Allied occupation coins. But they don't, they covet and chase after the coins with nazi symbols on them. I find that concerning and I spoke up. Thanks for participating in the discussion.

 

So why do you think they collect them? I have 1 and 1 only mainly because it is part of history that we don't need to forget. My father was a POW in Nazi Germany so no one despises them more than I do because of the way he was treated. So you think I'm glorifying the Nazis because I own one?

 

I own some as well. Owning a piece of history is not the same as glorifying it.

Buying only nazi swastika coins and selling and promoting them as “the mark of the dreaded German war machine” is glorifying it. I am happy to agree to disagree. Everyone has their own opinion.

 

Just another use of the symbol. I’m not sure anyone is “glorifying nazi coinage” . I have stuff in my collection that I’m not a fan of but I think the 1984 version of rewriting history to take out the politically objectionable parts is worse.

 

Could also be viewed as a marketing gimmick. I think they are interesting and have a resale value, much like Confederate currency or pre-revolutionary war British items.

 

I agree that the advertising sounds too much like admiration.I have a 1936 5 mark and feel some disgust when looking at it, but feel that it should remain for others to feel the same.

An old buddy had a Navajo rug with swastikas in the corners. Here's one in Thailand, inside the top of this massive statue. I doubt the Thai people give the Nazi connection any thought at all. The Japanese atrocities on the other hand...

 

How far away are you now from calling those collectors white supremacists? That's what's objectionable about your post. Those were the coins that were circulating in that economy, and they're unique to it, no others have swastikas. They mark a time we should never forget. I think bashing those collectors is a little out of line. Have you ever owned a Ford vehicle? Have you ever read what Henry Ford said on "The Jewish Question" in his Detroit Free Press? So Ford owners are now anti-Semitic? The rooster crows and the Sun comes up. So that's why the Sun comes up? I can think of many reasons collectors are especially attracted to these coins and they've nothing to do with supporting Nazis. And some are to "preserve history," and that's no "guise."

 

Yeah, now find one that's tilted. The Nazi one is tilted.

 

Very likely. Littleton Coin Company makes bank on marketing gimmicks. I’m grateful to have the monetary security to not have to stoop to such methods. I recently bought a coin collection that used a 9/11 marketing gimmick. I gave those away instead of selling.

I accept and appreciate your perspective. I’m sure there are plenty of fine folks who have these coins. My concern is how quick American folks are to snatch them up. It just doesn’t sit right.

Who said anything about “rewriting history to take out politically objectionable parts”?? All I said was it’s kinda weird/concerning how many Americans take interest in coins with swastikas. And then all of a sudden you jump to 1984. I’m not seeing the connection, except for the fact that you made it up yourself (straw man argument).

 

I concur about the advertising concerns, which was one of my initial and most significant concerns. Interestingly, I reached out to the seller privately, and he actually updated the listing to sound less like admiration. It was a positive interaction, and I was grateful for the civil discourse.

 

The implications of these repeated statements are where I find the problem.

I think it is clear, that after five statements echoing the same sentiment, you feel as if many Americans have sympathetic feeling towards the Third Reich, and the Nazi movement more generally. Of course, that is nonsense.

This post in particular begins with two sentences which are absolutely correct, but then falls into some weird (many) 'Americans support Nazism' line..

In the politically divided era we live in, where all sides of the political spectrum call the other side Nazis, fascists, etc., I think it should have been relatively obvious that this post could stir up some negative feelings.

I suppose my question is that 'what makes you think that this is a uniquely American problem?' I think it falls more in line with the fact of human psychology that humans tend to take to extremes - having all or nothing responses. This includes an interest in the evil, and macabre.


I am not trying to stir up hate here - instead, trying to share where my problem lies with your statements.

Glad to see that there was a positive resolution!

Cheers,
Evan

 

And I think human psychology is the answer to the thread's question of "what's with the fascination"....there is a very small number of people who glorify the era but there is a larger group that wants these coins simply because others don't want them to.

 

This seems like it's building up similar to the previous Battle Flag fiasco that caused almost half of our previous membership, including almost all of the Ancient coin group to leave. Fascination can be with all evil or with all good. It isn't only the Western world, its all the world, Every group wants to be the determining factor to insure their countries success and the power to subdue the rest of the world to their level or lower. In the US , the states do not try to help all to the same level, same for the various groups of people that somehow differ from each other. Why do we do that when we can do much more if all cooperate? I tried to eliminate any politics or most of us will be gone from the forum. A coin did not start WW2, a few deranged men started WW2. Jim

 

Keep politics out of coin collecting

 

I think the answer is, that's what they like to collect. There are no rules in numismatics. If the post had 10 bids, were they ten different people or two or three outbidding each other? Either way, I only collect German States coinage and nothing past 1871. So am I in the wrong for not collecting WW2 related coinage? As to why there is a fascination, I think calling a relatively small amount of collectors of that coinage an American fascination is a faulty generalization. I know several more people that are obsessed with the British monarchy than Nazis, but I don't think the US is taking steps to reunite with Great Britain! At times we see so many reports of things such as airplane accidents, train wrecks, etc. that our minds are convinced these events happen all the time, when in fact they are only a tiny percentage of actual flights or train crossings. I think with the subject matter of WW2, emotions run high and one is more apt to remember those coin listings showing swastikas, Hitler, etc., But those are only a tiny fraction of a percentage of the other thousand listings you saw that week because emotions tie in. I don't think it's as much of a fascination as it's what's remembered. I can understand your frustration with the posting and am glad you had a positive result.

 

I can't help wondering if some of the wording used on 'contentious' listings is due to the use of censor bots on the various sites, or self-censorship based on the perceived likelihood of rejection. The last 20 or 30 years has seen a huge increase in the vociferous minority claiming outrage in the use of certain words across many topics, to the point where you have to disguise the product to get it posted. People have shouted and too many people have over-reacted in their accommodation of these views. I don't agree with everyone, and not everyone agrees with me. Live with it.

Governments have got involved too such as ebay's ban on Cuban coins. Why? They are as numismatically interesting to a collector as any other country. Collecting them doesn't make one a subversive. The person may be, but that's a different matter.

Listing items doesn't imply the person has sympathies towards any of the ideology represented by the item, whether far right, far left, or ways of life that were normal for the times. Slavery is a good example of this, but I don't hear anyone clamouring to trash the Parthenon or Colosseum, despite the fact that both civilisations were built using slaves. More worrisome would be an accompanying diatribe of marketing blurb glorifying the history behind them, or heaven forbid, a government putting the case for things most civilised people have rejected. You don't have to look far for that either.

It's unreasonable on a planet populated by 8 billion people not to expect to find someone genuinely interested in any particular narrow specific field, and if that happens to be a dark period in history, so be it. It still doesn't make them an adherent to the ideology. People should be free to collect whatever takes their fancy, and freely trading said items is a part of that.

 

Well said. And yes, the cennsorship on behalf of internet marketplces and social media is partially to blame, which is why in the original post, the poster had to omit the swastika using red. Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, and both will reduce your traffic if they detect the imagery - if they don't remove it entirely.

I think your post touches upon some important points.