Political issues ?

I would not collect any naxi coins and wouldn't mind if were all destoryed. I also feel that shrunken heads should not be collected. Even if Hilter never appeared on a nazi coin, I consider them the same as shrunken heads.

 

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Your perogative of course, but I don't get the analogy. Nobody died for the sake of a Nazi coin being minted, whatever else the Nazi government was responsible for. The coins are still a part of history, even if it's not a positive moment in history. I certaintly wouldn't want them all destroyed just because they represent an objectionable period of history. If we just pretend the worst parts of history never happened, what's to prevent the same things from happening again?

On a less symbolic note, I don't believe that my ownership of coins or currency produced under dictatorial regimes in any way shows support for them. They're just metal and paper, and the regimes have long since fallen.

If you're not buying them because it just bothers you to have them around, I can respect that. But if you're abstaining from Nazi coins as some form of protest lol, chech out my new sig line...

 

just a question...would you own a US coin minted before say...1940/50? Would that not be the exact same thing? We called it segregation Is it just that in SA it lasted longer? Is it the time passed factor that does it? Like a Spanish coin from colonial times (much of spanish gold and silver comes from South America where they were killing ofs the natives and using them as slaves)..would you own one? or is it different because time has passed...Its hard to think of a government that did not have racial laws similar to those of South Africa...they were just a little slow to change them The British set up some of the first concentration camps to house the women and children of Boer resulting in the death of tens of thousands, I assume you would still collect British colonial?


I ask honestly, not baiting or anything, just wondering what makes it different in your eyes.

 

Heck, I own US coins minted when slavery was still legal. My conscience is perfectly clear.

Anyway I think I've made my point...

 

Wasn't an analogy, more of a play on words.

 

Howdy,

Well, you've got to please yourself, but this is a slope that is particularly slippery.

Someone mentioned that US gold coins are only made with US gold. Er, that might have been pre-1933, but with the confiscation, they rounded up all sorts of gold from lots of places that was being held by US citizens.

Someone mentioned all US coins prior to the 1860's when the Emancipation Proc was written and the civil war fought to free the slaves. By definition, prior to this all of our coins were by a slave owning country.

In God We Trust or not? Again, 1860s and the 2 cent piece.

In my case, I don't fret this sort of thing. I just collect those things I like and move on.

I'd suggest that you collect those things that interest you, try to learn about the history of the series you collect, and yet try not to dwell too terribly deeply on issues that were outside of most peoples control. Many things that were once legal are now illegal and vice versa.

Casinos are now legal all over, but were once illegal. Does that mean I can or can't collect casino tokens. How about *****house tokens? The houses were once legal and at that time the tokens were also. Now most ***** houses are illegal.

Politiks are a very, very moving and dynamic target. If you worry too much about hitting it . . . you waste a lot of time zeroing in on target and firing spotting rounds.

peace,

rono

 

If evidence of historical wrongs is not preserved, the ability to avoid reliving them is diminished.

That's why, to my own knowledge, the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, both have complete sets of the Lodz Ghetto coins in their collections.

 

Nothing would make me refuse to buy any banknote or coin that depicts a British Commonwealth dictator,or issued by a terrorist regime.I have got a few banknotes from Uganda that depict Idi Amin on them,plus one that depicts Milton Obote on it.

The Republic of Ireland has a terrorist regime,but I will still collect the banknotes,coins,traders' currency tokens,& postal orders from over there.

Aidan.

 

I think that my problem with SA is a little different to the Southern US institution of slavery in the 1860s at that time it was quite acceptable in many countries, the SA situation was not acceptable a hundred years later. Yes we did create the 1st concentration camps but they were not set up as death camps in the same way the prison camps at Andersonville was not a death camp, they were very badly managed with no proper controls or accountability set in place. So you can not in reality equate those with what the Germans set up during WWII.

De Orc

 

Steve,there's nothing wrong with collecting coins of apartheid-era South Africa.In fact,some of the most attractively designed British Commonwealth coins were issued by apartheid-era South Africa.

The so-called 'concentration camps' that were set up during the 2nd. Boer War (1899-1902) were really internment camps that were allowed to be run down by officials who refused to understand the situation in South Africa.I have got the 1/- & 2/- remainder notes that were prepared for,but not issued by,the Green Point Track Camp in Cape Town.They're interesting banknotes.I've been informed that there was also an internment camp at Simonstown as well.

Aidan.

 

If a museum displays any type of nazi coins in conjunction with the holocaust to project the horror then I could understand it, But my persepective is that I would not have artifacts of evil in my home and I would not need to have artifacts of evil to know that they existed. Nazi coins were minted to gloryify nazism. movies made under the orders of Dwight Eisenhower like, "Night and Day", showing what the United States soldier saw when he liberated Concentration Camps showed the evil that the nazi's were. Lets face it, this was a movement that made soap and lamp shades out of Jewish people's fat tissue and skin, burned Christian women and children alive in Churches across eastern europe who went into the churches for protection against the conflict around them, Gunned down entire male populations of Greek villiages and raped the females etc... and let us not forget in which many American Soldiers, Sailors and Merchant Marine died fighting.

"I would not collect any naxi coins and wouldn't mind if were all destoryed. I also feel that shrunken heads should not be collected. Even if Hilter never appeared on a nazi coin, I consider them the same as shrunken heads".

I would not mind if they are all destoryed for the coins themselves were minted to represent the power and prestigage of the National Socialist Government as well as for commerce and I have the viewpoint that anything that golifys that killing machine outside of museums collections created for the victims should be destoryed.

But there are people who will collect them for different reasons perhaps thinking they are cool, thinking that they represent a powerful military machine, thinking whatever..I just think that they represent pure evil which would make my play on words, (Hitler being small minded to a shruken head), above also an analogy to those who recognize the evil of both.

 

Aidan I never said that there was anything wrong in collecting the coins of that era, what I said was that I (THAT IS ME, MYSELF & NO ONE ELSE) has a problem in collecting them, as for the camps please do try to read my post and by the way they were called concentration camps because it was the place that the Boar civilians were concentrated in.

De Orc

 

Political Issues

I think the Title says it all. This is one of those topics where everyone is going to have very passionate convictions. I don't think anyone is going to change what they collect based on a discussion like this and I don't want to be the one that judges others based on their coin collections. I hope everyone enjoys the coins they collect and collects for the right reasons. In this country you have the right to collect coins from anywhere and any time (except a specific US gold coin from 1933 that belongs to the US government ) and I don't want to live in a place that bans books, coins, or anything else that someone else wants to label as inappropriate.

 

Quite agree Darryl I think you should collect whatever you wish to, I for one dont pass judgment moral or otherwise on what coins anyone collects

De Orc :thumb:

 

I refuse to buy any coins from Mongolia until their government apologizes for the war crimes and atrocities committed by Ghengis Khan.

 

Um Ghengis yep I think you might well have a point LOL

De Orc

 

You made me choke with that..I was reading it as I took a sip...

Thanks for the explanation Orc..I guess for you the fact that they were later than many to stop segregation does it for you, for others they draw the line at fascism, I guess some would find my Stalin birthday coin objectionable as he could be said to have been the cause of more deaths than Hitler.

Seems a highly personal line that people draw, myself, I haven't found that line yet. Its all history and destroying the coin will not erase it but showing it and explaining it might help explain the events and times. I find a lot of the coins I see posted are from time periods and from nations whose policies I would find objectionable (USSR, Colonialism, Slavery, etc..)...I think of my role as collector as a person who preserves history and when I post my coins on my site I post them with a history to explain the situation and the time good or bad...thats just me. I have found this thread interesting to see how people approach this...some like me have no line they draw, its all history...others simply dont collect certain coins from countries they have a problem with, others would like to destroy all evidence of certain times in history.
Just to clarify though, I collect ALL coins from ALL time periods and countries...not because I think its cool to have a Nazi, soviet, SA, or Spanish coin but because I think almost all coins have historical value. By owning a Stalin coin, it does not mean I though he was 'cool' or that I agree with his actions...

 

I just found the institution of Apartheid distateful and made a personal decision not to collect the coins of that regime, and as I have stated previously if you want to collect them or anyone else does that is not a problem to me, I have quite a few spare ones that I hand out in give away packs so I dont destroy them or anything LOL If you took it to the extreem you woudnt collect coins of any nation as they all have things that they wish they had not done in there past.

De Orc

 

You could weave a web of guilt into the fabrication of so many historical relics, buildings, names, holidays, whatever. But I would never want anyone to forget Stalin, Hitler, slavery, apartheid, etc. Ever vigilant must remain the historian, and as coin collectors we are all historians in a sense.

 

Coins can't be "evil." Coins don't decide when or where they are struck. They just "are." To destroy a coin because of what is stamped on or by whom it makes you no different than the Taliban destroying ancient religious artifacts because they are offensive. It's the 21st century and by now people should have gotten over such superstitions. Collect what you like but don't destroy what you don't collect. Many of these things in time will probably find their way into museums so that folks a thousand years from now can view them.