I have got 2 Ugandan banknotes that have the portrait of Idi Amin on them.He was a real fruitcake who awarded himself the Victoria Cross, called himself 'King of Scotland' & 'Conqueror of the British Empire'.They are a 5/- & a 100/-.I haven't yet got any depicting Milton Obote,who was the Prime Minister who ordered Idi Amin to overthrow the constitutionally-minded & very popular President,Kabaka Mutesa II of Buganda in 1966.While Milton Obote was attending the British Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1971,Idi Amin led a coup & ousted Obote.Idi Amin was responsible for expelling the Ugandan Asians to Great Britain & seizing their businesses.He had a lot of his opponents murdered.He can be regerded as being the East African equivilant of Robert Mugabe.He was overthrown in 1979 & ended up dying in Saudi Arabia & is now burning up in the Lake of Fire in Hell along with Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini.Obote later served a brief second term as President,but he was overthrown again,as Obote remains very unpopular with the fanatically Royalist Baganda.The Ugandan Kingdoms were restored in 1993.Kabaka Ronald Mutebi (or King Ronnie,as he is affectionately known as) is the current Kabaka.Kabaka Mutesa II was affectionately known as 'King Freddie',as Mutesa II's first name was Frederick. If you have any non-Axis of Evil coins & notes depicting dictators,please can you post your information about them here.
I have a handful of old Soviet notes featuring Comrade Lenin. I also have a 1947 Spanish 1 peseta coin. The obverse features Franco with the legend "Francisco Franco: Caudillo de Espana por la g. de dios." Loosely translated, that's "Francisco Franco, Leader of Spain by the grace of God." Not only did he invoke God's name in his dictatorship (see my signature), in Spain, "Caudillo" is understood much like "Fuhrer" in Germany, "Duce" in Italy, or Bose's attempted "Netaji" in India. Depending on your political opinions, I also have a few Turkish notes featuring Ataturk.
are there any coins with Idi Amin on them? i think he was the wackiest of all dictators. I read somewhere where he once had a group of his rivals beheaded then seated them at a table and scolded them for trying to start a rebellion. In between scolding he would nibble a piece of their flesh. sick!!!!!!!!! I got to have a coin with this guy's face on it.
Revjohn13,Idi Amin is depicted on a gold piece that was listed in Krause up until a few years ago. One of the most recent dictatorial leaders in southern Africa appears on 2 circulating commemorative coins - the 1 Rand coins from South Africa,which comes in 2 sizes - the large nickel one,which always turns up,& the small one, which I have never seen,let alone had.The dictatorial leader in question was P.W. Botha,who is the last man to have held the post of Prime Minister of South Africa (1978-84).He brought in South Africa's 2nd Republic (1984-94),which abolished the Prime Ministership,introduced a tricameral parliamentary system,& made the State President of South Africa an executive position wielding massive power.P.W. Botha became the first (& penultimate) executive State President in late 1984.He was replaced in 1989 by F.W. de Klerk (the only State President who has not appeared on a coin),who effectively did away with apartheid & paved the way for the introduction of the 3rd Republic under President Nelson Mandela & the return of South Africa to the British Commonwealth in 1994.Between 1961 & 1984,the constitutional arrangement of South Africa's 1st Republic was similar to that under the Union (1910-61),in which the State President had non-executive powers similar to the Governor-General,& the parliamentary system was a bicameral system. The words 'Soli Deo Gloria' appears on all silver, nickel,& small 1 Rand (except the gold R1) that have been issued since 1965 (including the 1967 R1 coins,which depict H.F. Verwoerd). P.W. Botha was known as 'the Great Crocodile', because of his hardline attitude.
I have since got a few more Ugandan banknotes depicting Idi Amin on them.One of them is a very scarce sub-type of the 100/- note. Aidan.
Primarily I collect coins from Europe, and I have always found it somewhat odd that so few dictators were depicted on the coins. Nazi Germany for example did not issue a single Hitler coin even though the "Führer" was omnipresent in other regards. (Hitler coins were planned for the time after the "final victory" ...) Similarly, no Italian coin shows Mussolini - but Italy was a little different in that it was a kingdom, and Vittorio Emanuele just continued to be on the coins. Or take Stalin. As far as I know, the only (European) coin showing him was issued by Czechoslovakia. In other dictatorial regimes, such as Greece in the late 1960s/early 70s, there was a military junta but not a personality cult. Most monarchs used to be king or queen "by the grace of God", and you will still see that nowadays on British coinage (D.G.REG.) for example. Now Franco himself was not king, but he considered himself to be the defender of the (basically Catholic) kingdom, and "preserver" of the monarchy until the next Borbón king in line would take over ... So I do have quite a few coins from such dictatorships, but hardly any of them depict dictators. Christian
Famous villians on coins and notes. In Africa, it was traditional to have the head of state on the coins, especially if he's a homicidal maniac. I've got stuff from all sorts of countries. As to Milton Obotoe, when he came back to power after Idi "VD" Amin was overthrown [Amin's ephemeral successor's ephemeral successor lived near me as an exile and the local paper had the following headline: Local Man to Head Uganda] he became even more bloodthirsty and deranged than Amin ever was. Collecting monsters is an interesting challenge. The easiest one to get, of course, is Generallissimo Francisco Franco, who put his ugly mug on the coins starting in the late 1940s. The next most common was Leopold II of Belgium, who being a king was of course on the coins. Gottwald of Czechoslovakia put his face on a coin, and there were some dead German Communists who were put on East German commemeratives. there are patterns with Hitler's face on them, and they're very expensive indeed. Only slightly cheaper are the Petain five franc coins of the Vichy regime. The Famous italian Mussalini fantasy piece is rather common too. The following Islamic dictators are on coins: Saddam Hussein Mohamar Qaddafi Haefaz Assad Gamel Abdul Nasser
How about any of the Popes of Rome.A number of them,especially Pope Urban VI of Rome,were bloodthirsty dictators who had their opponents murdered. Aidan.
Cuba has coins depicting Che Guevara -- he was a nasty little murderer, though not a dictator. But I don't think El Jefe has ever been on a coin, so it'll have to do.
"burning up in the Lake of Fire in Hell along with Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini", Adian. Hey, Mussolini got the trains to run on time! "In between scolding he would nibble a piece of their flesh. sick!!!!!!!!! I got to have a coin with this guy's face on it", revjohn13 . Yeah, I came across that as well. Idi, as I like to call him, went to live in Saudi Arabia after his ouster, I wonder what he ate there? "How about little Napoleans", quick dog. Chrisild or anyone else, I have read from a few sources over the years that Napolean was actually of average height for his time period and there was a little bit of "British revisionist history" on the matter of Napolean being made in a way, "less of a man" by shorting him. I was wondering if anyone else came across that claim as well. Noticed I stated claim. "Cuba has coins depicting Che Guevara -- he was a nasty little murderer, though not a dictator. But I don't think El Jefe has ever been on a coin, so it'll have to do", Carlinhos. Yeah and he wasn't even from Cuba. Cuban's good, Castro bad. It really is that simple for me. .
