Featured A world tour - post the next country.

Italy.

 

Sicily, Akragas: silver hemidrachm, ca. 410-406 BC

 

Spain

 

I love the Portuguese designs.

 

Wild card, playing from Belgium!

(Below I've posted a German trench art engraving on a Belgian host coin. You may play from either Belgium or Germany next.)

"Souvenir of an Invasion": WW1 German trench art on 1904 Belgian 10-centime coin)

Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture

Host coin: 1904 Belgium 10-centimes, KM53.
Obverse: host coin details unaltered, red (glass?) "jewel" mounted in original center hole. Bail ring mounted at top.
Reverse: host design planed off, re-engraved in German: "Feldzug in Belgien[Campaign in Belgium] 1914-1915", iron cross at left.

Ex- "acsb-rich", eBay, 03/17/2017.

I've had some interesting pieces of World War I "trench art" coins come and go in recent years, but this is the first piece with German engraving I've had, and also the first "love token" piece I've had with a mounted stone in it. (I've always kind of liked those, but one has eluded me until now). It was rather stiffly priced and the seller drove a hard bargain, but after some deliberation I decided to go for it.

This coin was probably made into a souvenir for a German soldier to send home to his mother or sweetheart. Though there is no name nor initials to associate it with an individual soldier, it does describe itself as a relic of the German campaign in Belgium ("Feldzug in Belgien") in 1914 and 1915.

The 1914 German invasion of Belgium was a brutal affair and there were a number of atrocities, though these were somewhat exaggerated by British and French propaganda. Many civilians were killed and cultural sites destroyed.

Eventually the German advance was checked by Allied forces and the war along the Western Front devolved into the muddy stalemate in the trenches we so often see depicted in films today.

Of course the Germans learned their lesson and never invaded Belgium again.

Haha. If only that were true! The Nazi blitzkrieg swept through again in 1940.

 

Likewise! That's a worthy addition to our geographical list.

 

Lithuania: silver half-groschen of Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, 1550

(PCGS MS63; population 5 with 8 higher as of 2/9/2018)