Comments on "The Coinage of Fascist Italy"

[<k>]

Parent topic: The Coinage of Fascist Italy.

[<k>]

Italian propaganda stamps of World War 2.

[<k>]

Not coins, but I always find graphic art of this period quite fascinating, while being repulsed by the baser instincts behind the romanticised images.

Italian military aid stamps of 1935. I have highlighted the most fascist-looking stamps. The harking back to ancient Rome and its symbols is typical. Then with extreme right-wingers, you get the fanatical look in the eyes and that mystical obsession with fire, flames and torches.

[<k>]

The stamp designs of the Italian Social Republic were rather tame. You can imagine some of the designs on the coins of San Marino. The rump regime itself was brutal, however.

[<k>]

Back to the coins. It is interesting how many different portraits of the King there were, facing this way and that, bareheaded, with helmet, with uniform and with no clothes on his upper body.

[eurocoin]

I have read your topic with a lot of interest, you have done a great job in explaining this era. I consider the topic to be of a very high quality. It also compliments your topics about the situation in other countries around this time well. A pity that a significant amount of the events was not featured on the standard circulating coins.

While looking at the images I noticed the strange thing underneath this portrait:



I expected it to be some kind of meaningless decoration but just to be sure I did some research on it. To my surprise it turned out to be far from meaningless. Apparently it is the Savoy knot, a symbol that is used in Italian heraldry, most notably as part of the heraldic batch of the House of Savoy. Victor Emanuel III was as king head of this royal house. It can be compared to the Prince of Wales feathers.

[<k>]

Nice research, eurocoin - and thank you for your comments on my piece.

Usually I notice details like the rope and research them. However, maybe I didn't this time because rope is inherently uninteresting. Now, ostrich feathers are a bit more exotic. I could easily buy a piece of rope at the shops, but I'd have more trouble finding some ostrich feathers. Perhaps the feathers are magic and keep the royal house going. Maybe the Italian dynasty would still be reigning today, if they'd had some. 

[<k>]

I wonder where the so called "Roman salute" originated. It is now best remembered as a Fascist and Nazi salute, yet the Americans were doing it for long enough: The Bellamy salute.

[<k>]

The March on Rome.

Strange to see Fascists with beards, which I associate more with old Marxists. The photo above reminds me of a photo of a British comedy team, "The Goons", seen here in the 1950s.

[chrisild]

Now, ostrich feathers are a bit more exotic. I could easily buy a piece of rope at the shops, but I'd have more trouble finding some ostrich feathers.

And why? They were all confiscated by San Marino, and then displayed on their lira and euro coins.

[<k>]

And why? They were all confiscated by San Marino, and then displayed on their lira and euro coins.

You are right. 

[<k>]

Strange to see Africans giving fascist salutes. I didn't include the coins of Italian East Africa in my topic - they were never specifically Fascist in design.

There are also "buono da"-coins of the Governo Generale Africa Orientale Italiana from the Gondar mint in Ethiopia.

Am I allowed to show foreign pictures? (unknown source)

Are these fantasies?

[<k>]

Below, a photo of Vittorio Emanuele III and Crown Prince Umberto, and a medal (dated 1946) of King Umberto II.

[chrisild]

This "fert" is funny by the way. Nobody really knows what it means.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FERT

Christian

[<k>]

This "fert" is funny by the way. Nobody really knows what it means.

Funny indeed. Losses of meaning occur occasionally throughout history, and then certain people suggest stilted versions of what they might have been.