In 1939 Germany invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia and the country was divided into two main parts Slovakia which was allied to Germany and Bohemia & Moravia which became a Protectorate of Greater Germany and placed under Reichsprotektor, Freiherr Konstantin von Neurath under his rule things were not as bad as they would become. The real power & terror though lay with Reinhard Heydrich , the 'Butcher of Prauge' (Head of the SD) when he was made Reichsprotektor on 27 September 1941. Heydrich was died after a failed assasinated attempt by Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík two Czech soldiers parachuted in by the British on May 27, 1942. The reprisals taken for this act still remain today as a poigniant reminder of the brutality of the Nazi Regiem, Under the command of the new Reichsprotektor Colonel General Kurt Daluege, about 13,000 people were arrested, deported, imprisoned or killed. On June 10 all males over the age of 16 in the village of Lidice, 22 km north-west of Prague, and another village, Ležáky, were murdered, the towns were burned and the ruins levelled. The Czech koruna was replaced by the B&M Koruna in 1940 and issued in the following values as a coins 10, 20 and 50 haléřů in zinc. This was followed in 1941 by the 1k also in zinc Well I have finaly got my 1st two B&M coins 1941 20h 1942 1k As some of you will know I allready have a number of the banknotes in my collection but on top of that I have nearly all the stamps that were produced under the occupation I am trying to get the Slovakian ones as well
Very cool De Orc!! I think there was some justice in the fact that Heydrich died a nasty lingering death and didn't die fast and clean.
:thumb: Have to agree Kiwi One thing though while these coins are not expensive I have been out bid time & time again LOL so was extreemly happy to finaly get two of them along with a few East African that I will scan latter today
cool finds. my son picked up a 50 haleru at Baltimore - very neat zinc coin. it's a 1941 in Good condition. the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia didn't last too long, but long enough to mint coins. i love the 1/2 page mintings in Krause. -steve
Well it was from 1939 to may 1945 so quite atime Prauge was one of the last big cities to be liberated, could you let me know in a pm what the mint marks are? Many Thanks :bow:
How assassination fail if Heydrich killed? Once I know Czech who was partisan in his country, he sometimes would tell story of killing of SS officer once in early 1945.
Quite simple realy the reason he died was that Himmler forbade anyone from going anywhere near Hydrich until he arrived in Prauge himself from Berlin with a Dr sent by Hitler. By the time they arrived it was to late and septasemia had set in, if the Czech Dr had been allowed to opperate he would have lived. I hope to get a 1944 Slovakian 50k very shortly and possibly a couple of other silver issues, there are no silver Bohenia & Moravia coins unfortunatly
Hmm, do they have any? They were minted by Mincovna Vichr in a town named Lysá nad Labem (near Prague) but the ones I know have no mint marks ... Christian
Krause lists no mint info and no coin carries a mint mark. some info seems to point to Labem, but my Czech isn't very good so the translation leaves much to be desired. -steve
Side note: "Labe" is the Czech name of the river that in German is called Elbe. So Lysá nad Labem means Lysá on the Labe/Elbe. The old German name was Lissa. Now whether the business that made those coins can actually be called a mint or rather a metallurgic company which happened to make a few coins during the occupation years, I don't know. Good luck with your research! Christian
Thank you Christian I have found that the coins were designed by a Spaniel sorry his full name is J. Eder, O. Spaniel, so far have not been able to find any info on him but will persist
Errm, "on them". Don't understand Czech but here is a short article in Italian about the Böhmen & Mähren coins: http://www.cnvaldostano.it/Notiziario/Notiziario n. 1_web.pdf (Takes a while until the graphics are displayed, it seems.) On page 6 you find the article "Il Protettorate di Bohemia e Moravia e la sua monetazione". It does not really say anything about the mint, in fact, most of the article will not be news for you. What I found interesting is this: "Le prime prove di monetazione si realizzarono nel 1940 in zinco ed alluminio a cui seguirono nello stesso anno le coniazioni ufficiali." That is, the first coinage patterns were made in 1940 in zinc and aluminum followed by the official coinage in the same year. That article also says the obverse designer ("Incisore del dritto") was Jaroslav Eder, reverse by O. Spaniel. And then there is this page: http://mince.kvalitne.cz/2.htm ... "Jaroslav Eder" ... "Otakar Spaniel". A-ha! Still nothing about that mysterious mini-mint though ... Christian
Nice coins and great Info, Steve. It’s interesting to know about the mini mint and the designers of these coins. I tried to build a type set of these early Czech coins which is not complete yet. But here is the second page of that type set: Obverse: Reverse: I Hope you and few other will enjoy this. Regards, Ballabh Garg
Ballabh they are my next mini project LOL so thanks for sharing them with us :bow: Christian & Steve again many thanks something else for me to ponder :thumb:
