Yugoslavia: Two Kings on Coins

[<k>]

Looking to the East towards Serbia, to the West towards Croatia?

A few years back there was a young Bosnian guy who sat next to me at work. I asked him whether he had used the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet at school. He told me that the schools had had a policy of "biscriptualism": so he wrote in Cyrillic one week, and in the Roman alphabet the next. So in terms of Yugoslavia, there is nothing unusual about Dincic being adept in both alphabets.

[translateltd]

It was said at one time that Serbian and Croatian were essentially the same language (hence Serbo-Croatian), just written with different alphabets.  Ditto Hindi and Urdu ("Hindustani" in the days of my Teach Yourself Book - no, I haven't studied it).  In both cases I suspect great efforts are being made to find ways to make them as different as possible for political reasons, regardless of the loss of practicality for their users.

[<k>]

It was said at one time that Serbian and Croatian were essentially the same language (hence Serbo-Croatian), just written with different alphabets. 

I believe that to be true. It's the cultural differences only (alphabet, religion, history - one belonged to Austria-Hungary, the other didn't) that come into play.

[Zantetsuken]

Yugoslavia fantasy, 1967.

Interesting thread. Here's a silver proof for King: Peter II in exile date 1967.

I'm not quite certain who authorized this issue, but it's an interesting piece none the less.

Peter died three years after this coin was minted, in 1970.

[<k>]

Tito.

Nice piece, and very professionally designed. It has to qualify as a high-class fantasy though, since Yugoslavia was still under the rule of the communist Tito in 1967. He died in 1980. Twenty years after your piece was issued, Slobodan Milosevic started making a name for himself. And we all know what happened next.

[Figleaf]

There's no denomination on it, so it doesn't pretend to be a coin.

Peter

[africancoins]

I saw the word "ESSAI" that piece - a word I have only seen on coin-like (various) items...

I also noticed the (joined) "FM" mint mark of the Franklin Mint...

So I looked for it in "Unusual World Coins" and it is listed there as a "Crown".

I am fairly sure that the legends mention nothing of a denomination.

You could easily still class this as medallic though.

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

[<k>]

Peter II.

Essai is French for trial. It can't really be a trial, though, as it's a fantasy.

Apparently the legends say, "Freedom or death", and "Peter II, King of Yugoslavia".