Germany, 2 & 5 Reichsmark 1937, Paul Von Hindenburg issue

[chrisild]

The portrait is square and blocky but as far as I know so was the man.

Right, but as you and v66 wrote, that head is huge. Look at that earlier (Weimar Constitution Jubilee) issue; that is a little better, I think. Of course it would be odd if his head on a coin was quite different from the real Hindenburg and yet ...

By the way, a few cities in Germany still have "Hindenburg" streets or squares. Most of them have been renamed in the past years though. In Münster, NW the city council decided earlier this year, with a multi-party majority, to do away with the Hindenburgplatz, but now there is an initiative that wants the name back. And since it collected enough supporting signatures, there will soon be a referendum about Hindenburg. Well, about the square's name.

Christian

[Prosit]

The Weimar Constitution Jubbilee, while a nice enough coin just doesn't portray the same strength as well as this one imo.

I guess where I am going with this is that if, as an artist, you want to portray strength, force of character, unwavering to ideals and maybe plain hard headedness....filling the coin totaly with the portrait is a sure fire way to communicate those traits. After all there is no room left to put a doubt on that coin.  Therefore I think their is sufficient artistic reason for the portrait without bringing in a conscious decision to leave no place for graffiti.  Maybe that was secondary or even tiertiary if considered at all.  Will never know but it is interesting to speculate.

The portrait conveys to me a person not to mess with while the Weimar Constitution Jubilee portrait looks surprising like my older brother 
(who does share a few of those character traits too btw).

Dale

Right, but as you and v66 wrote, that head is huge. Look at that earlier (Weimar Constitution Jubilee) issue; that is a little better, I think. Of course it would be odd if his head on a coin was quite different from the real Hindenburg and yet ...

Christian

[chrisild]

Not sure about the "anti-graffiti" part either; could be. But yes, the message of this portrait sure was a different one - the Weimar coin was about him as a president (note that Hindenburg was alive when that one was issued) of a more or less democratic republic. Right after his death, Nazi Germany issued those 2 and 5 RM pieces that were probably supposed to emphasize the WW1 (Tannenberg) "hero", and to emphasize that it was Hindenburg who appointed Hitler ...

In the early years of the nazi regime, by the way, they may have been a little more careful indeed. For example, the commem that was supposed to "welcome back" Saarland in 1935 was never issued even though they had a design contest.

Christian