For the Third Riech Coin lovers out there.

I agree mine are part of a larger collection, I dont place any extra emphasis on them or go specialy looking for them, even though I do seem to have amassed a fair few Hindenburgh LOL

 

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You can buy the coins quite openly, what I do believe the German goverment is aiming at is overt displays of Nazi memrobilia or flags & uniforms etc specialy in public. I am sure that Chrislid will give you the correct info on this.

 

This will be difficult to answer without getting into a political debate, but let's try. First, over here in Germany you can collect whichever coins you want, and of course that also includes coins from the nazi years. Selling and buying them is perfectly legal.

On the other hand, nazi propaganda is against the law here. Which means that you can buy, for example, historic medals, uniforms, books, badges, etc. - but making and distributing modern reproductions can be problematic. Similarly, if a director plans to make a movie that for some reason glorifies the nazi regime, that will be against the law. Other than that, no problem - and of course a movie that is about or involves the nazi years will have and display nazi symbols. If that was illegal here, many German movies could not have been made.

Some German eBay sellers are a little (over-)cautious regarding the depiction of the swastika in coin auctions. Guess that was because some time ago a few DAs tried bringing such cases to court. Surprise, the judges decided that in such contexts there is nothing wrong with the swastika on the coin being displayed in the photo ...

Christian

 

Marvelous Answer

Wonderfully put in a way that even my simple brain could understand it. Thanks for clarifying that for me!!
Todd

 

The coin shop I go to has them on display always, he says they are a hot item among the younger collectors. I have quite a few myself brought back after WWII by uncles who were there and from a jewish man I worked for as a kid he gave them to me for shoveling his sidewalk when it was to deep for him, he eventually gave me all his world coins. I also have some older pfennigs from the 1920's from my G.pa. My cousin has some very old,very nice coins from the 1840-1850 era all German coins, nice to look at. Personally if a coin is well designed and is in good shape I like it, I dont care where it came from,its just a coin and not your political veiws of life on this planet.

 

wow...that is an outstanding 2 mark Preussen...

I have most of the Nazi types but I just collect any coin with historical interest...or to be honest...almost any coin. Coins arent evil, they are just history...thats all. This always happens with nazi coins though. I cant think of a coin type I wouldnt collect.

Here you go...more EVIL (insert evil laugh)

 

Like it or not, if you are really ethical about such bloody dictator regime, you might as well know that some of the Swiss gold coins were struck from German gold that were stolen from well, the concentratation camp. Traces of mercury are found in such coins. Hopefully you don't need me to elaborate.

 

According to the Swiss WW2 and nazi gold commission (UEK) about 120 kg gold, mostly from the jewellery and teeth of people killed in the KZ "camps", were used for making them, along with other gold. But as you will know, the Swiss central bank then bought a lot of gold from Nazi Germany. And the German government's primary source was not what Melmer and others "delivered" but confiscated gold from the occupied countries.

Oh well, just as some governments today say that it is legitimate to attack a country based on false allegations, to kidnap people anywhere in the world and detain them without trial, in the name of safeguarding one's own security, the Swiss government back then may have thought that the buying the gold was necessary to make its currency more stable and thus to some degree guarantee the country's security and independence at a time when it was literally surrounded by Nazi Germany and its allies. Or take a very recent example: Only fairly recently, coins from Libya would have been front row exhibits in a gallery of shame. Now the same coins may not be on display there any more because that would politically not be opportune these days ...

Christian

 

ASUtodd, Please don't misunderstand my comments. I am a avid collector but I would not buy the Paris Hilton diaries. I am of German descent also but prefer to collect things that have a high moral character. I see nothing good concerning the third reich.

 

Agreed, but collecting Nazi Germany's coins does, by itself, not mean that you support the ideology or share nazi views. Again, it depends on the context: If you collect Third Reich coinage and no others, along with a bunch of other nazi memorabilia, that is - in my opinion - quite different from collecting them as part of a collection of, say, world coins in general, or early/mid 20c pieces, or maybe coins from dictatorships.

Also, and I may repeat myself here , for me it makes a difference whether my purchase of, for example, a silver or gold coins supports an existing dictatorial regime or not. Nowadays I have quite a few commems from the GDR since many of them have themes that have to do with German history in general, and/or complement issues from the Federal Republic. But before 1989/90, buying them would have meant supplying the regime with "hard currency" ...

Christian

 

Sir, I also collect Dali woodcuts and other fancy stuff I can't spell nor pronounce. I think coins are art work and would be the same as hanging a picture of this coin on my living room wall.

 

That story about Swiss coins containing mercury from Nazi victims is a false urban legend.

 

For someone that is trying to deny history - by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/assets/state/report.htm

Like it or not, there is no such thing as blood free metal. Miners die from mining any kind of metals and they get recycled over and over - unless you own a private mine and mined by yourself or similar, you can only speculate how much lives have been lost yearly. A quote from one of the mining industry managers has mentioned a figure of for every tonne of gold mined globally, 2 people will eventually die and 17 people will get so critically injured that they are unable to work. Much worse for coal.

 

I am a WWII buff also and I have quite a few Nazi coins - almost a complete type set. I Have expanded my WWII collection to include coins from many combantants, like Italy, occupied France, occupied Holland, GB, and of course the U.S.
When I show coins to non-collectors most are more interested in my WWII collection more than other rarer, older US coins.

 

There's a British expression about getting your panties into a twist. I think it applies here.

I bought a DVD on Hitler for $1 at the Dollar store or I don't even know where. BY CHANCE, it had fallen behind our TV stand and I found it last night. I watched it and it was four hours long.

Absolutely fascinating - of course, I was aware of a lot of this stuff - but I guess that it was the fact that it was FOUR hours long and I just sat and watched.

I think I have some "stamps" that were also legal tender during the Second War. I'll try to find them and post them.

This was just a fascinating period of history and for anyone to say that you shouldn't collect things from that era are just silly.

SOMEBODY famous said: "Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it". And in the case of Nazi Germany, I don't think we want to do that.

 

I find it ironic from whom I received my nazi coins. The first nazi coins were a gift from a jewish man who I worked for after school, he fled Germany just in time, we got along very well, he knew I collected coins so he gave them to me, nice man. The second bunch came from my uncle Fritz who as a paratrooper was shot in the legs while dropping behind German lines during the invasion of Normandy. His wounds were attended to by the Germans but eventually one leg had to go. I think that if anyone had a right to be down on these coins these 2 fellas did but they simply veiwed them as collectables.

 

Cool coins. If I ever run across any I'd defintely consider adding them to my collection. The dates on a coin really don't make you think about the era that the coin was minted. The symbols and portraits are what evoke the history of that time period. I've got coins from the US Civil War era that don't really evoke as much historical interest in me as the coins with the swaztikas and the portraits of infamous dictators.

Important to note: Due to the sacrifices of many people throughout the years we have the freedom to debate such issues with no repercussions other than maybe some bruised feelings.

Just my two cents worth.