News:

Sign up for the monthly zoom events by sending a PM with your email address to Hitesh

Main Menu

Yugoslavia~The Twilight Years

Started by Zantetsuken, December 04, 2009, 04:00:07 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Zantetsuken

The following two coins are from the SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA. The first is a 1,000 Dinara silver commemorative for the 'Death of Josip Broz Tito (known as Marshall Tito) in 1980. Tito, who was the communist ruler of Yugoslavia since 1945, created many policies that decentralized the government and gave each of the six (initially five) republics equal status. While not perfect, it kept the peace in the region. However, following Tito's death, there was no successor to carry on his work. This lead to Yugoslavia's slow downward spiral to disintegration. By the late 1980's, Serbian ultra-nationalist Slobodan Milosevic, began to undo everything that Tito had achieved. In 1989, he used the 600th anniversary of the 'Battle of Kosovo' to stir up Serbian nationalism, and caused Serbia to take a more dominant stance. Milosevic undermined the Yugoslav parliament and military, by trying to place it under Serbian domination. This caused serious tensions with the neighboring republics which came to a head with the secession of Slovenia and Croatia in 1991 and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia in 1992. This sparked a civil war which left portions of Croatia and most of Bosnia in ruins. In the end, Serbia and Montenegro was all that remained of Yugoslavia. The second coin is 5 Dinara dated 1992. It bears the coat-of-arms for the six republic federation, but was issued for what was already a defunct nation.


YUGOSLAVIA (SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~1,000 Dinara 1980


YUGOSLAVIA (SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~5 Dinara 1992

Zantetsuken

#1
This next section deals with coins from the FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA. Following the secession of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro formed a new union called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. Slobodan Milosevic, used this name as a guise for his real goal of creating a greater Serbian state. The first is a 5 Dinara coin dated 1992. It has a very simple design with a monogram on the obverse side with the national name in Roman and Cyrillic legend. The reverse show the date and denomination. The second is 20 Novih Dinara proof dated 1996 commemorating the 140th birthday of Nikola Tesla. The obverse shows the new arms of Yugoslavia, national name in Cyrillic, date and denomination. The reverse shows Tesla's portrait,Tesla's name in Cyrillic, location and date for birth and death. The third is a 5 Dinara coin dated 2002. The obverse shows the state arms with the national name in Roman and Cyrillic. The reverse shows the Yugoslav Parliament Building with date and denomination. 2002 coins were the last to carry the name Yugoslavia, and also the last time Serbia and Montenegro used a common currency.


YUGOSLAVIA (FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~5 Dinara 1992


YUGOSLAVIA (FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~20 Novih Dinara 1996


YUGOSLAVIA (FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~5 Dinara 2002

Galapagos

Former Yugoslavia has a fascinating history, and fortunately some attractive coinages have arisen from the ashes. My own favourite is the Croatian coinage, followed by the defunct Slovenian currency. Macedonia and especially Serbia have attractive designs. I sometimes wonder whether Milosevic was a secret coin collector and started the wars with a numismatic purpose in mind.

Bosnia's coins are very boring, and Montenegro and "Kosovo" have decided to use the euro.

Zantetsuken

#3
Quote from: Hardy Strong on December 04, 2009, 04:12:56 PM
Former Yugoslavia has a fascinating history, and fortunately some attractive coinages have arisen from the ashes. My own favourite is the Croatian coinage, followed by the defunct Slovenian currency. Macedonia and especially Serbia have attractive designs. I sometimes wonder whether Milosevic was a secret coin collector and started the wars with a numismatic purpose in mind.

Bosnia's coins are very boring, and Montenegro and "Kosovo" have decided to use the euro.

Some of the coins from the former republics are very interesting, whereas some are very boring as you stated. For example, the series of coins issued for Yugoslavia in 1992, after the breakup, are as dull as you can get. They look more like transit tokens than actual money. Bosnia's earlier proof coins were rather nice, but the later issues for circulation were nothing really to talk about. Slovenia and Croatia however have created a very interesting assortment of coins in the short time they were independent. I would love to see Bosnia create some interesting new coins in the near future. I might start collecting these again.

~Daniel

Figleaf

What's interesting also is that many of these coins are somewhat similar in size. This is deceptive. The dinar went through a number of reforms, each taking at least one zero off the old denominations. They are:

1966 1:100
1990 1:10 000
1992 1:10
1993 1:1 000 000
1993 1:1 000 000 000
1994 1:12 000 000

In 1993 another three zeroes were chopped off without a change in the current money. These are included in the 1994 reform. As a result, though a 1945 dinar is similar in size to a 1994 dinar, a 1994 dinar is actually equal to 12^28 (that's a 12 followed by 28 zeroes) dinar.
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

chrisild

Quote from: Zantetsuken on December 04, 2009, 04:03:34 PM
2002 coins were the last to carry the name Yugoslavia, and also the last time Serbia and Montenegro used a common currency.

Interesting story, and good photos, thanks! As for the currency in Montenegro, I think the split came a little earlier. In November 1999 Montenegro unilaterally introduced the euro (and in the first phase used DM cash) along with the dinar. A year later (Nov 2000) the dinar was phased out ...

The Tesla coin confused me first: Huh, mine looks a little different? Then I noticed that for the Yugoslavian 1996 coin and the Serbian 2006 coin they used pretty much the same portrait. :)

Christian

Zantetsuken

Quote from: chrisild on December 06, 2009, 01:16:40 AM
Interesting story, and good photos, thanks! As for the currency in Montenegro, I think the split came a little earlier. In November 1999 Montenegro unilaterally introduced the euro (and in the first phase used DM cash) along with the dinar. A year later (Nov 2000) the dinar was phased out ...

The Tesla coin confused me first: Huh, mine looks a little different? Then I noticed that for the Yugoslavian 1996 coin and the Serbian 2006 coin they used pretty much the same portrait. :)

Christian

Thanks I'm glad you liked the thread. I read that too, that Montenegro was using the German Mark initially, and then the Euro when the monetary system changed. Montenegro had been trying to distance itself from Serbia for awhile when the sanctions kept eating away at the economy. I agree that the Yugoslav and Serbian commemoratives for Tesla look very similar on the reverse. Serbia might have copied the basic die pattern and reused it only modifying the date. They are very cool looking coins though.

~Daniel