I am doing a WWII coin collection. One of my first goals was to get a time-line of WWII (which countries were involved and when) and then take the list of countries and then determine a type set of coins from those years. So, Japan invaded Manchuria/China in 1931, and this could be called the beginning of their WWII conquests. In 1 931China had lots of regions and many various coins depending on the region. I have a World coin book, but it's not real helpful determining which regions were involved. Any suggested references? I'm hoping I can use some of the expertise on this site (or be lazy myself and ask for help!). I will be researching the invasion of China and cross referencing maps. Thanks.
This is my specialty! You might want to check a type set album I created about 4 years ago. It's due for redesign and I've upgraded a few coins as well. https://issuu.com/gxseries/docs/puppet_type As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a decent catalog available for these coinage. For Manchukuo coins, there is a catalog that is written in Chinese. More information here: http://gxseries.com/numis/china/manchukuo_mintage.htm Another catalog is the JNDA catalog which is a Japanese catalog and does brief mentions what coins were used overseas. It had little information about them other than their specifications and values. There are other fields that you might want to look at: - Manchukuo - East Hopei - Meng Chiang (Inner Mongolia) - Hua Hsing (Shanghai) - Federal Reserve Bank (Beijing) I believe you can do a fair bit of research on Wikipedia as what I have done. Most coins are obtainable however there are counterfeits known even for coins that are worth just 10 - 20 dollars! Excessively rare coins exist for Meng Chiang and Hua Hsing. (not represented in my type set) It is speculated that the coins issued for Federal Reserve Bank were struck on Japanese planchets. Reason being is that they weight exactly the same despite having their weight reduced over 3 years. Whether they were struck in Japan or in China - I still have no clue.
Thank you for the help. I have learned quite a bit from searching the internet, but not a lot specific to the coins. and thanks for the heads up about counterfeit coins at the $10 price range. Surprising, but not too surprising. I'll try to buy any from a good dealer.
Couple of counterfeit examples illustrated by NGC. https://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?NewsletterNewsArticleID=2343 https://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?NewsletterNewsArticleID=2590
Slightly off topic, but the only reference I've found for post WW2 Republic of China issues is: D. Graham and E. Kann. "Coinage of the Chinese Emigré Government" in The Numismatist Vol. 70, No. 11-12 (November-December 1957).
Ardatirion - thanks for reminding me. I did forget E. Kann. I didn't get around to reading the whole book as I have that book buried somewhere at home. There is an affordable reprinted version and there are three parts to it. http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Catalog-Chinese-Coins-Vol/dp/0923891188 He did mention something about such coinage. One part that I did find interesting is that the Japanese were buying the older coinage higher than face value during the later years of WWII when nickel and copper became strategic war metals. Should try and dig it out when I can find it somewhere...
Thanks, gxseries. Being an amateur, these counterfeits would be nearly impossible for me to identify. Anything that is remotely valuable I will try to buy through a reputable dealer.
Unless those marks are raised I don't know how those marks are differentiated from nicks or contact marks. To use these nicks as diagnostics seems questionable. Now if they show up in the same place on multiple coins that's a different story. These NGC articles are often vague and I think try to persuade you of the need of TPG grading
dlgilles - if you need help in searching a particular coin, let me know and I might be able to point you to recommended dealers. Alternatively I may have duplicates of certain coins that you are looking for. joecoincollect - I do know where you are coming from. At the same time, it's difficult for TPGs to strike a fine balance between promoting their services and giving too much free information away to counterfeiters. At one stage NGC was badly stung by a flood of counterfeits as they were caught unprepared a few years ago. The only real advantage that they have is that they have a huge database to compare. Grader companies got 'lucky' when counterfeiters thought they could get away by sending a huge batch, only to raise suspicion. These days counterfeiters would only send small batches at one time. I personally was also stung by some high quality counterfeits but am glad that I have learned from it.
I started a theme set a while back but never really expanded it. Here are some of my(random) notes that I put together. Some of it might help save you some time. Allied Forces Ethiopia · China · Czechoslovakia · Poland · United Kingdom · India · France · Australia · New Zealand · South Africa · Canada · Norway · Belgium · Netherlands · Greece · Yugoslavia · Soviet Union · United States · Philippines · Mexico · Brazil Axis Forces Bulgaria · Croatia · Finland · Germany · Hungary · Iraq · Italy · Italian Social Republic · Japan · Manchukuo · Romania · Slovakia · Thailand · Vichy France Underground Resistance Network Nations to fight the Nazis/Japanese Austria · Baltic States · Belgium · Czech lands · Denmark · Estonia · Ethiopia · France · Germany · Greece · Hong Kong · Italy · Jewish · Korea · Latvia · Luxembourg · Netherlands · Norway · Philippines · Poland · Thailand · Soviet Union · Slovakia · Western Ukraine · Vietnam · Yugoslavia The Axis: *Germany *Japan (At war in Asia since the 1930s *Italy (Entered in June 1940) *Romania (Entered in November 1940) *Hungary (Entered in November 1940) *Finland *Slovakia (Entered in November 1940) *Bulgaria (Entered in March 1941) *Croatia (Entered in June 1941) The Allies: *Great Britain *France *USSR (Entered in June 1941) *United States of America (Entered in December 1941 after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) *France *Australia *Canada US involvement 1941-1945 *Greece *Belgium *Netherlands *Yugoslavia *Norway *Luxembourg *Czechoslovakia *China (Led the Allies in the war of Asia - Pacific after the invasion by Japan in 1937) *Poland started 9/1/1939 German invasion of Poland VJ day 8/14/45 Ve day 5/8/45 brazil only latin country to send troops overseas in 1944 mexico 201st fighter squadron in philippines austrailia announced involment 9/3/39 but was bound by great britain declaration. largly involved with wad of japan in 1971 belgium attempted to remain neutral but became involved when invaded in 1940 liberate din 1944 canada declared war 9/10/39 fought under british command royal canadian air force invasion of normandy chech republic dismembered in 1938 france 2 sections occupied and non occupied. vichy became government of the non occupied.vichy attaced several times as they sought to enter yhe war on the side of the axis india part of britain. fought in sudan against the itailians and libya againg germany also involved in war with japan japan leader of the axis forces in the pacific. atomic bomb ended their involment norway invaded by germany april 1940. germany began manufactoring heavy water in norway in their attempt to produce an atomic bomb. philippines one of the first counties invaded by japan. 1944 us returned to free us declared war after attack on pearl harbor. main priority was defeat of germany but was the primary force in the pacif against japan italy had a Pact of steel with germany. joined the war late 1940.
Thanks sonlarson for the information. There are a lot more countries than I expected, but learning as I go is what is making this a very interesting process.
