Comments on "Denmark under Nazi occupation"

[<k>]

Parent topic:

Denmark under Nazi occupation.


Post any comments on the parent topic here.

[<k>]

I am aware that, in 1940, Denmark was also in charge of Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, and Iceland. These were never occupied by the Nazis, so I will not include their stories in the Denmark topic.

[<k>]

Does anybody know why the Danes decided to change the designs of the coins under the occupation? Only the designs of the 10 and 25 øre did not change. I imagined that the Danes would have been keen to signal a continuity of sorts and leave  change the coins unchanged, despite the occupation.

[chrisild]

A little bit of info (in Danish) about the WW2 coinage is here:
http://www.danskmoent.dk/c10schou.htm

On that page, the lower half of the 1941 line is interesting. Direct links:
2 øre - http://www.danskmoent.dk/chr/c10h33.htm
5 øre - http://www.danskmoent.dk/chr/c10h31.htm

That would at least explain the aluminum issues. Also note the "hammer and sickle fiver", post production altered of course.

Christian

[<k>]

So they used the aluminium from milk urns / churns to make coins. How did they store their milk, then?

Yes, the idea of the 5 being turned into a hammer and sickle is rather contrived.

Also, the site doesn't explain why some of the designs were changed.

[Figleaf]

So they used the aluminium from milk urns / churns to make coins. How did they store their milk, then?

Don't know about Denmark, but this is how it was done in the Netherlands. Milk was sold house-to-house from a cart. Bottled milk was basically a pre-packaged liter of milk in a glass bottle (for which a deposit was due) with an aluminium cap. When the caps were no longer available, milkmen reverted to unpackaged milk and housewives had to provide their own container. The mik was carried in large iron (later stainless steel) churns of 30 or 40 liters, resembling those used on a farm, but polished to a shine and with a provision on the bottom to screw a tap on. Raw milk would be transferred from the rough churn into the polished one by removing the lids on top and pouring; a heavy lifting job.

In the picture, the milkman is tapping milk into what looks like a half liter measuring container. He has two reserve bottles on the cart (one may contain buttermilk) plus an elaborate one, probably for cream. The large wooden box in the centre would be cooled with ice and contain butter and - in the hottest weeks of summer - ice cream. On its side is a small wooden box that contains money. This is a hand cart. Other milkmen would have pedal driven carts or occasionally moped-like carts.

Peter

[Figleaf]

You rightly comment that both Leopold of Belgium and Christian of Denmark remained, while Wilhelmina of the Netherlands fled, Leopold lost his throne and Christian turned his pre-war unpopularity into popularity.

Leaving aside constitutional considerations, Wilhelmina was a fiery critic of nazism in exile, but her political reform plans were decidedly undemocratic - and quickly buried. Christian resisted nazism and the deportation of jews. The story that he wore a star is apocryphal, but I have no doubt that he would have done so if the nazis would not have relented. He did restrain the resistance and showed more compassion with jews than with communists, but there was never a doubt that his sympathies were with Denmark only. Leopold, by contrast, behaved in a vacillating and pretty controversial way, leaving him open to doubt as to how far he was willing to go.

Peter

[FosseWay]

Does anybody know why the Danes decided to change the designs of the coins under the occupation? Only the designs of the 10 and 25 øre did not change. I imagined that the Danes would have been keen to signal a continuity of sorts and leave  change the coins unchanged, despite the occupation.

It could be something as prosaic as the suitability of the design for the rather substandard material some of the coins were made of (I'm thinking especially of the aluminium coins, which always seem rather crude regardless of apparent condition). The previous design was more detailed, and the hole might have posed structural problems with lower-quality metal.

[<k>]

That's a neat theory. I'd never thought of that. Danish designs have always looked very boring to me, though, but it reflects the country, really. I think of it as the three "L"s: Lurpak, Lego, and the Little mermaid. Probably its greatest contribution to modern culture is the Barbie girl song:

That started another war - a war of litigation between the record company and Mattel, creator of the Barbie doll. 

[<k>]

@Figleaf, milk is still delivered to the door in the UK, but far fewer people use the service now. It was almost universal when I was a kid. Probably it's partly to blame for the high rates of heart disease and high cholesterol levels in Europe.

[FosseWay]

Danish designs have always looked very boring to me, though, but it reflects the country, really.

Jag ved ikke, hvad Globetrotter har at sige om det! 

[Globetrotter]

Hi,

the Danes might be boring, but they are the most happy people in the world Maybe they are just happy because they are so boring that nobody will disturb them in their self inflicted boredom? But if two bored people come together it's a party

Ole

 

[chrisild]

Problem is that, if two Danes get together, they do not understand each other.

And then ... if only people such as Søren Espersen (Dansk Folkeparti) would simply be happy. But no, he would like to draw a new Danish-German border, quite a bit further south than the current one. Maybe his life is actually boring, so that he comes up with such ideas ...

(Feel free to livingroomify a few posts here. )

Christian

[Globetrotter]

Hi,
a part from anything else, those guys are NOT danish, since they have a Norwegian accent......
If two Danes can't understand each other, they'll start to communicate in German, English or French, so we don't have any communication problems. "What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?"

, a Danish version!

Ole