WW2 Era Coins

I have always found that collecting coins from war times was so fascinating. It just makes me think of how far the coin has come to get here in my hands; that the coin has more significance because it came from a historic time period. I have some others mixed in there that a pre and post war times too. Anyways, thanks for checking out my collection!

 

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Not sure if many people know this, but the Belgian 2 francs from 1944 was actually struck by the US mint on zinc plated steel cent blanks that were not used in 1943.

 

Interesting! Thanks for the information!

 

Civil War born.

 

They make a nice pairing...

 

I've never seen a Belgian 2 Franc before. Now I need one!

 

@StilloesEmporium Nice collection. I was born in 1943 and have special interests in WW II and 1943. So, I do have some 1943 world coins. I like the way you have your collection identified.

 

It was a fascination with my dad's WWII coins that got me started collecting while still in grade school.

 

Someone post a Canada 5 cent from the war years. On the Reverse is a huge "V" (for victory) and around the extreme edge is written in Morse Code "We Win When We Work Willingly" ... 1943 tombac & 44,45 chrome plated.

 

Here are 44 and 45. I'll have to look for my 43.

 

I like to collect Japanese wartime coins and occupation money.
Many times I can find them in 10 cent bins.

10 Fen Hua Hsing Bank 1940 copy

Al 10 sen showing weight reductions. Showa 16 x2 (1941), Showa 18 (1943)


Occupation Money

 

Australia.

 

Albania.

 

Argentina.

 

American administration of the Philippines

 

One of my favourite collecting subjects!

 

Serbia 1942 fifty para

 

Nice posts all around! I can think of plenty of coins that fit in this category, but perhaps the most moving/haunting to me are the Belgian, German, Dutch, French, Austrian/Hungarian and Ottoman 20 francs/marks/ lira coins that are dated as of 1913-14. Being "modern" (relatively) gold, they are mostly in good condition, and so you see the smiling, shining, somewhat arrogant portraits of various monarchs, kaisers, republican symbols etc. almost as they were then as a strange time capsule of a time right before the world (Western, at least) changed forever. I know the fates of the various empires and regimes after the end of the next 4 years, but have no idea how many of the people who held those coins once didn't make it back from either side of the trenches or otherwise had their lives changed forever. That war and its effects also drastically changed coinage, including the fact that most of the pre-war varieties discussed above didn't survive (as a type of coinage, that is - there are millions upon millions of the existing pre-war coins). If folks want photos, happy to provide, though they won't be of great quality as the coins are in quadrum capsules.

The U.S. wartime coins I have generally don't have the same feel to me personally, since my limited understanding is that U.S. coinage didn't circulate heavily with troops overseas (what with foreign currencies, military scrip/ MPCs and the like). Then again, I also don't have any continental coins or U.S. coins from, say, 1812-14, when things were closer to home, and the few U.S. coins I have from the years of the "War Between the States" are just cents.

 

Denmark 1943

 

I've always found these to be really haunting. This is coinage issued by Germany in occupied territories. This is an unusually high grade example from my collection.