Were Many or Most Nazi silver coins melted down?

I always tried my best in Europe to blend in with my accent etc, but alas in E. Europe they could sometimes sense that I was a foreigner. They were trying to be helpful by telling me that stuff was fake(I knew, but wanted the stuff for study purposes) but they really didn't want to rip off a foreigner - imagine the irony of that!

 

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As for people in the US who collect nazi memorabilia, you never know. Maybe it's right down their political alley, some will find the period historically interesting, and somebody else may have a grandfather or so who fought against the "Third Reich". Hard to tell. As for what is illegal here in Germany, well, bottom line is that nazi propaganda is against the law. So it is legal to sell/buy a coin or medal, or something else with a swastika, from those years as historical documents. A modern (post-1945) artifact however would only be OK for educational and similar purposes.

Christian

 

Was it more of a shameful hesitance or anger for "opening up old wounds" sentiment? When I visited the Dachau concentration camp, the atmosphere was understandably very sensitive out of respect. As a tourist, I felt like I, along with all of the other tourists, was telepathically and preemptively being asked, "Why would you ask that?" for even some of the most seemingly innocent questions. My curiosity sometimes doesn't get the hint...

 

I'm a fan of history and especially world war 2. I have a few Nazi coins and other items. To me it's history. Granted none of my family was in the concentration camps so I can understand why others can be upset. The only family who served was in the Pacific.

 

I would say a little bit of both.

 

Always a sensitive area of coins, but that is reason why people have to show how machismo can over rule good judgment. No more outburst. If it isn't your area of collecting interests , find another thread. Posts removed, infractions given.

 

I just saw this from NGC (1942), probably a typo though lol:



https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide...nna-km-534b2-1942-1945-cuid-52706-duid-142846

 

Amazing how much those WWII items have gone up . Thanks for serving !

 

Here's my 1938 Germany 5 Reichsmark - the grade looks not too bad... it did look much better in the seller's photos though lol - maybe AU (?).

 

I know what you mean. Your singing my song:

 

It's funny you would post this. At about the same time, I was buying silver 2 mark & 5 mark coins and paper money from a retired Army officer who lived in Germany & was teaching school. He had supposedly stumbled on a hoard in the town
where he was living.

 

Interesting! I love hearing about those types of stories. Thanks for sharing.

 

Some coins of my collection

 

And a MS 63/64 reverse of the first Hindenburg type without Swastika.

 

I should probably know this but before I look it up, are these things silver?

 

The 50 Pfennig piece is of .900 silver

 

I doubt very many Nazi coins were destroyed. Probably the bulk of the coins in government possession were destroyed but this is often a relatively small percentage of all the coins.

Most of the silver coins in typical condition have little or no premium so they get destroyed each time silver prices go up.

 

In theory, you would think those typical condition or none premium coins that get destroyed because the price of silver going up, would "increase" the value of the ones that weren't destroyed. But I guess that's not how supply and demand works with coin collection.

 

What was crazy was that when the USSR overran the Baltic countries they called in all the coins from the three countries and then just put it in the vault for 50 some years. Which is why so much of it became available during the last years of the USSR. Ca. 1989 I got a price list from Mezhnumismatika in Moscow that had a lot of overpriced Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian coins.

 

Here are my 5 Reichsmark Hindenburgs. They're not too hard to find in shops (though maybe not in the quality serious collectors desire). When offered on ebay or Muenzauktion, they frequently have the swastikas covered to avoid trouble with the law regarding display of Nazi symbols.