coins of world war 2.

i have been fascinated with WWII since my mother and i found a photo album my late grand father made while overseas. he took part in the liberation of a concentration camp and the photos he took will haunt me forever. i have been toying with the idea of trying to put together a set of 1939-45 coins from as many allied countries as possible. after that i will work on the axis. has anyone else done or doing this, and if so, what are going to be my toughest allied coins to find? thanks.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Some Soviet coins from that era will be extremely pricey regardless of the condition. In particular, the 1942 10 and 15 kopek both easily exceed 200 dollars each in VF condition. I am still hunting these coins even after a few years.

It might be easier to collect one of each denomination from that era and countries. I think China might be in the list but that's another nightmare list

 

Sounds like a neat collection idea.

Do you have a Krause World Coin Catalog? This is where I would start.

Also, you will find more world coin enthusiasts in the World & Ancient Coin section of CT.

Here is a war-time Italy coin I posted in that section earlier today:

 

A good way to start is Great Britain. A good variety of types at low price in XF and, sometimes, also in UNC condition.
I finished the series by date from 1939 to 1945, except 3 pences 1942 - 1943 - 1944 (KM 848), the only coins a bit rare. Another country with commons money is France, but in 1942-1943 you have only Vichy Republic coinage, and they cannot be considered as Allied coinage.

Also Nazi coins from 1939 to 1945, are commons by date, may be less common if you search for a particular Mint (Nazi used 7 different Mints).

Finally, Italian coins are commons from 1940 to 1943 (no coinage after 1943) except 50 centesimi 1943, and 2 Lire 1942 - 1943: these coins are rare and expensive (plus than € 100 each).

petronius :smile

 

Yeah, as Collect89 says, World Coins 1901-2000 is the first step :yes:

petronius

 

Plus you need to decide how inclusive you will be. Are you just going for the major countries, or including those who jumped on the bandwagon when the war was almost over? A bunch of countries declared war on Germany in 1945 when it was obvious who was going to win. Also, are you including the colonies of the countries involved? Netherlands East Indies, British India, Philippines, French North Africa, etc. It really was a "world" war.

 

If you scroll to the bottom of this page, you can see how big this list could get.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_of_World_War_II

 

i figured i would start with the european theater first. i have canadian, us, british, and french examples from '39. i guess i will start there. i do have an aluminum '44 vichy, but i guess i cant count that as an allied coin, like petronius said.

 

my mother in law came and told me that these actually came from a captured german officer. she also brought me these. very rare flash card set from the A.A.F.G.O.C. with the corresponding manual that my wifes grandmother was given by the government as a spotter when my wifes grandfather went off to war. it is next to impossible to find a full set of these 5.5"x4" flashcards. there is a museum that has a set of 45. each of the 49 cards has its own page in the manual to take notes(which she did), and a nice picture. it is set up with the picture after the notes page, so each page is like its own print with the notes on the reverse. so awesome! women really picked up the slack for us. without them, we may have lost. i cant believe she wants to part with this.

 

Interesting topic. I am a history buff, but my area of interest is actually the Civil War. I started going through the stuff I have lying around with the intention of putting together a set of WW 2 coins, at least one coin from each country and year involved. I was looking at dates that correspond with the US involvement. Just kind of something to do when I had nothing better and was bored. Then in March, my wife received a phone call from a representative of the US Army asking her to submit a DNA sample to help identify the remains of her second cousin. Nobody on her side of the family really knows anything about him. Turns out he was the radio operator of a C-47 that disappeared over Burma in 1944. Wreckage was not discovered until 2004. So as we researched this my interest in WW 2 increased, so back I go to this set. We are still waiting confirmation and positive ID. I am also looking to start with the European Theater, but now may switch to the Asian Theater first.

 

this truly was "the greatest generation". they turned this nation into a war factory overnight. the men went to fight an enemy that could not lose, many to never come home, and the women at home became the backbone of the country. every single person did their part. even children took part in material drives and recycling.

 

here are a few more of the things my wifes grandfather "relieved" a german of when he got those coins. i have two boxes full of things to catalog and preserve.

 

a couple of 1923 hyper inflation notes.

 

Nice notes, you could pool up and buy a candy bar with that!

 

not even a king size.

 

I enjoy the safe conduct :thumb:

petronius :smile

 

mother in law says there is a $10 american bill somewhere at her house with german on the bottom. says it is another type of safe conduct pass. i iwll try to find it when i go back over.

 

Pretty cool collection of stuff there. You could put together quite a display.

 

it is immense. he and his wife saved every single thing he ever received in regards to the war. from beginning to end. here are the first letter he received from selective services and the last. i have EVERYTHING in between. it is a lot of stuff.