German coinage of the Allied occupation, 1945 to 1948

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Here you a see a trial strike of a 5 Pfennig coin, dated 1947. There is a gap where the swastika previously was on the war time coin.

Image courtesy of Andreas Fenzl.


Documents of the Hamburg Mint show that 5 pieces were minted for the Reichsbank head office in Hamburg.

Zinc, 2.4 g in weight and 1.1mm thick.

Schaaf S.371 No.374G1

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My thanks to Gerhard Schön, who has sent me this image of a pattern piece of the 1947 issue of the aluminium 50 Reichspfennig. This coin was first minted in 1935 as a one year issue only, during the Nazi era, but surprisingly without a swastika. Only through writing this topic did I learn that it was also minted in 1947 and precisely because it did not feature a swastika.

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And here is the 1935 version of the aluminium 50 Reichspfennig.

[chrisild]

Great photos; thanks for the "hunt" and the posts! Yes, the 50 Rpf 1947J was apparently a pattern piece. According to the Jaeger catalog, somebody paid €1,400 for it at a Künker auction in 2002. Schön lists a few: Cu-Ni-plated steel 1946D, aluminum 1947J, and cupro-nickel 1947J. My guess is that these were initiatives of the mints, nothing "ordered" by the allied forces. The Schön catalog has five to ten variants for each of the Allied Occupation coins ...

Christian

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Thanks for that. So there were no circulation pieces issued of those pattern pieces. An interesting interim period in the numismatic history of Germany, then.

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Interesting indeed. The coins show how the Germans were grappling with a "re-branding" of their country, shaking off the nazi influence while looking for inspiration in the period before. The process ultimately resulted in a completely new series with only a wink to the pre-nazi coins. History shows that beginning almost, but not quite from scratch was the right decision.

In parallel, the thread shows how "de-nazification" was supported and carried forward by the new powers that be, headed by Konrad Adenauer. There is an illusion among in particular rightist politicians that if you remove a vicious dictator, the population will soon take over and allow you to withdraw. Events show over and over again that this easy assumption is false. Germans had experienced living in a democracy and they were at ease with the rules, including the inevitable rotation of political parties. They were prepared to take responsibility for the destruction, misery and injustices done in their name. That is the exception, not the rule. In countries from Japan to Iraq, clans, families and traditional rulers soon make a comeback and try to forget, refuse to take responsibility, let alone learn. They tend to restore, rather than re-make.

Peter

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It made some sense to not come up with a completely new design for the coins that this topic is about: the pieces issued after the end of WW2, but before the introduction of the new coins in both West and East Germany after the 1948 currency reforms. All the specifications (design, size, composition, etc.) are the same as in the nazi years; the only exception is that the eagle now has a tail instead of that wreath with the swastika.

As for the political decisions made in those years, well, on one hand it was obvious which country and government was responsible for beginning the war, so anything like the post-WW1 stab-in-the-back legend (that ultimately contributed to the end of the Weimar Republic) would have been impossible here. So yeah, let's try this freedom and democracy thing again. Never mind that, once the Cold War had taken priority, having a few "former" nazis in responsible positions in the Federal Republic was obviously tolerated by the Western Allies and the Adenauer government ...

What I also like about the Allied Occupation coins is that they continue using those Fraktur (blackletter?) characters. Now such fonts do not really look good when following the edge of a coin for example, and they make using ALL CAPS - common on coins - pretty much impossible. The funny thing is, while Fraktur had been supported and "pushed" by the nazis first, the government decided in 1941 to not use it any more because it was, ta-daa, now considered Jewish. Lots of transition regulations and periods were applied though, after all the war effort had a higher priority.

Anyway, the post '45 decision to also leave the font unchanged also showed, deliberately or not, that these were neither "Jewish" nor "Nazi" characters.

Christian

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See also:

1] Coinage of the German Democratic Republic.

2] Pre-euro Coinage of the Federal Republic of Germany.

3] Saarland Coins and Currency.