Mussolini on a coin...A Fantasy issue? But who's fantasy?

O.K., my friends. I think that a coin is nice!

 

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Fascinating slice of history, thanks for posting it. Seems the Italians got the short end of the stick from all sides in the war. First, they took massive casulties fighting the Austrians. Then when it was time to even the score, they got nothing. The French got their reperations in the treay of Versallies, but the Italians got nothing. No wonder there was starvation and riots by the end of 1919 in Italy, and also no wonder they ended-up fascist and with the axis powers 20 years later.

 

Check the history of Trentino-Alto Adige (de: Südtirol), particularly what happened about 100 years ago ...

Christian

 

While it's true the Italians got South Tyrol out of the deal, --much as France got Strasbourg-- unlike the French, the Italians received zero in the form of cash reperations. At the same time, the French recieved all the gold there was to be had in Germany which ultimately lead to the hyperinflation of the 1923 in Germany. Even a cursory comparrison of life in the 1920s in France and Italy, reveals a huge difference. The French made-out like bandits while the Italians received almost nothing, even though they too fought with the allies in WW-I.

 

The Treaty of Versailles was a real fraud for Italy :headbang:

And think that Austria was ready to give us more than we obtained with the treaty, if we maintained neutrality...but we wanted war

 

Well, Germany along with Austria-Hungary practically lost WW1. And yes, at the end of that war, Strasbourg - and the other areas that had been French until 1871 - became French again. Not that the Versailles Treaty was "fair" or made to guarantee a long lasting peace, but hardly anybody thought that way 100 years ago. Which is why in the 1950s concepts such as the French-German friendship and the European Community/Union became an important part of political life around here. Not that this has anything to do with that Mussolini medal ... Maybe we should have an "open" OT section here.

Christian

 

Petronius: Are you from Italy? Not wanting to get into politics, but whatever happened to Dario Franceschini? He is a thoughtful, center-left intellectual leader of the liberal Democratic Party of Italy.

Anyway, the name calling "fascista" still resonates in Italian politics. Watch the short video below from the Italian Senate in Rome, Italy as one right wing politician insults another with an Italian expletive and yells of "fascista" are heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-HLQu3hvXo&feature=related

No wonder the Late Roman Republic Senate 2000 years ago was so turbulent.

Here's some footage from the Senate of the Ancient Roman Republic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGvGGyLn9Os&feature=related

For those of you who want another taste of modern Italian politics, here's another from the Italian Senate, I believe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Nut1_bg2cik&feature=endscreen

This is why many of us enjoy the study of coins: It makes easier the understanding of culture and history, both modern and Ancient.




guy

 

Actually, Franceschini is President of the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Party in the Chamber of Deputies.

This is his page on Wikipedia: it's in Italian, but it's more complete than the same in English, you can use Google translator.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dario_Franceschini

petronius :smile

 

Grazie tante. Non c'e` bisogno. Posso leggere abbastanza bene in italiano. :too-cool-for:

My favorite period of Italian coinage is the pre-unification coinage:




guy

 

Nice coins :thumb:

petronius :smile

 

The 5 Quatrini looks better than AU55 to me. Nice coins...,, I once had a small group of Italian/Napoleon occupation silver minors that I sold off on eBay around 2001. Sure wish I had held on to them, probably worth 10 times what I got for them back then. They've gone up in value much more than similar 40 Lire gold issues from the era, at least percentage-wise.