Croatia: Rare wartime patterns from the Nazi satellite state

[Ukrainii Pyat]

After WWII ended there was a "Government in Exile" that existed in Argentina or somewhere like that.  They printed up a lot of postage like stamps that filled up stamp dealers junk bins back in the 1970's.  I believe they may have also had coins struck.

[<k>]

After WWII ended there was a "Government in Exile" that existed in Argentina or somewhere like that. I believe they may have also had coins struck.

Certainly not the patterns in this topic. The Ustaša released a fantasy 5 kuna in 1934, when they were still just a terrorist movement, and a copy of sorts of that piece was released circa 1968. See this scan from World Coin News of July 1996. Translateltd points out there are spelling mistakes in the Croatian of the 1968 piece.#

[chrisild]

True, but you can see the 1990s designs were clearly based on the patterns. There is of course nothing inherently fascist about a marten. 

Yes, the similarity is indeed striking, and as I wrote, I find such parallels interesting. But not really anything to be worried or uncomfortable about, I think. (Even more "extreme", or maybe not, was the use of a nazi design on early GDR coins.) As long as the symbols or other elements are not associated with a particular regime, why not use "unused" patterns for new coins ...

Tilia - had to look it up; we generally say lime tree here in the UK - some may also know "linden" from the German.

Ha, and I had to look the English word for "Linde" up.

Christian

[<k>]

Yes, the similarity is indeed striking, and as I wrote, I find such parallels interesting. But not really anything to be worried or uncomfortable about, I think. (Even more "extreme", or maybe not, was the use of a nazi design on early GDR coins.) As long as the symbols or other elements are not associated with a particular regime, why not use "unused" patterns for new coins ...


Christian

You opportunist, you! Yes, I well remember your topic The ear and the gear.

Ha, and I had to look the English word for "Linde" up.

Yes, we say linden tree in English, and is that street in Berlin still called "Unter den Linden" ?

[natko]

Name of currency kuna is derived from the tax that was paid in the middle ages, in silver money or in marten's fur.

One of the first Croatian coins (actually the second series) struck back in 13th century had quite similar marten, which was of course used, as it's quite distinct feature.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banovac

At least the modern coins look nice, full of small details and are designed by real sculptors, which is often not the case anymore.

Drawing parallels with nazi regime is at least funny, while the other stuff I read here like "terrorist" sound too much biased to me...point of studying those rare and nice coins was strained into politics. We shall not forget similar German puppet states existed though Balkans and central Europe, like Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro and further to the east. Scandinavia had the same regimes.

[natko]

What confuses me is the generally bad condition of those patterns which never circulated. Mostly they're never VF-XF with quite lot of wear, like ordinary coins which have been used for at least 2 years. Does anybody have a clue why it might be?

[<k>]

At least the modern coins look nice, full of small details and are designed by real sculptors, which is often not the case anymore.

The modern Croatian coins are beautifully designed, I must agree. Back in the early to mid 1990s, it was an exciting time, with new sets coming out from central and eastern Europe. In those days I didn't have the Internet, so I never knew what these sets looked like beforehand, but I always bought them by post from my favourite dealer (now retired), sight unseen. I can still remember how thrilled I was when the Croatian set arrived and I looked at the designs, particularly that design of the marten on the kuna coins.

Drawing parallels with nazi regime is at least funny, while the other stuff I read here like "terrorist" sound too much biased to me...point of studying those rare and nice coins was strained into politics. We shall not forget similar German puppet states existed though Balkans and central Europe, like Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro and further to the east. Scandinavia had the same regimes.

Drawing parallels with the Nazi regime was not meant to be "funny". It's a very serious matter. The Ustaša regime was in its way as brutal as the Nazi one. I tried to make my piece as factual as possible. I was dealing with history. I was not trying to show the Croats to be a bad people - just describing what went on under Pavelić. It is hardly possible to describe history, particularly that period, without involving the politics of the time. I know there were similar German puppet states throughout Europe and I don't deny it, but I was describing Croatia, not Slovakia or Serbia. I certainly do not think I was biased. For the record, I think Britain was lucky to escape Nazi occupation, because it only takes a few brutal people to run a fascist state, and I'm sure there were plenty in Britain, as in other states, who would have been willing to do the job.

Is the word "terrorist" biased? The Ustaša used violent methods and included a bomb in its symbol. If you are a state, you wage war; if you are not a state, you commit terrorism - unfair, perhaps, but that's how it's usually described. And Pavelić did encourage violence, especially in the 1940s. He was a very brutal man. That is fact, not political bias. It seems to me that is not possible to study coins, however rare and nice they are (and they are both, for sure), without taking into account their historical context.

My point was that, when the Croats used such symbols from the wartime state, which had massacred so many people, the Serbs must have seen this as highly provocative, to say the least. That does not change the fact that the Croatian patterns and coins, of the 1940s, are indeed beautiful and very well designed.

As an Englishman, I am just as critical of the British Empire, which also committed atrocities (the British and white Kenyans killed thousands of Kikiyu in the 1950s during the Mau-Mau "emergency"), though mostly not on the scale of those committed by the Nazis, fascists and communists. That does not mean that I think that my country or countrymen are on the whole bad.

[zviscevic]

Images of 5 and 10 kuna coin designes which were planned, but never realized.

There exist only modern replicas of 10 kuna coin, made in Zinc.

Allegedly, there exist trial strikes, but this is not 100% confirmed.

All designs were created by famous Croatian Medalist Ivo Kerdic.

[<k>]

Croatia: patterns, 1941.

Our forum member natko is a Croat,

He recently informed me of more Yugoslav patterns from this era.

They were sculpted by the Croat, Ivo Kerdić.


The woman on the 50 banica pattern is very different from the one on the 500 kuna up-thread.

The 1 kuna pattern shows some vessel whose significance I do not know.

[natko]

Drawing parallels with the Nazi regime was not meant to be "funny".

Only now I see how clumsily I wrote my original post. We always think everything is assumed and understood. Sure, you are absolutely right in your post. I was referring strictly to discussed parallels between design of these patterns not many people knew of and modern Croatian coins and how the Ustaše movement live on today's coins. After all, it was important for the officials in 1993 not to raise any upsetting ghosts of the past. If these were the official circulating issues I doubt we would have a marten running below the denomination. Kuna as a name by itself was criticized in Croatia, which I tried to justify with image and description of a medieval coin, which was model in both cases, just like the marten on Slavonian CoA used to these days. The pattern, interlace, as we talked about on another topic is a specific decoration used in 9-10 century on most monuments here and used extensively as a symbol for identity since 1848 revolutions.

Sorry for offtopicking.

Now about the vessel, as I pointed out in the PM, I'm not sure did it have any meaning. The only thing it came to my mind is CoA of Rijeka city, orginating from 1659.


where ever-flowing water from a pot (Indeficienter) symbolizes (besides the small but rich river in the city) infinity of life, existence, etc.
Was it only unintentional, like a farmer seeding seeds or plowing the field, we'll never know.

[<k>]

Thank you, natko. The two pots do look rather different, but maybe it is true that the symbolism is the same.

[Figleaf]

The vessel on the CoA has a clear heraldic meaning. It refers to the name of the city, which means river. Moreover, the ever-flowing vessel is a heraldic symbol for (the source of) a river, in this case, the Rjecina. The pot on the coin does not seem to have a heraldic function. In view of the elaborate handles, it may be a reference to local art.

Peter

[<k>]

Here's one I don't remember seeing before.

It's a photo from the Viscevic catalogue (he is one of our forum members).

According to our forum member natko:

There is an interesting story about Croatian KM#1, 1 kuna 1941 which was supposed to be minted along with 2 kuna of the same date. Train from Germany that was carrying empty planchets to Zagreb mint was blown up in a partisan diversion and only extremely rare patterns exist in copper and zinc (together with one sided trial strikes etc). Zinc one, having the same characteristic of the coin that was supposed to be struck is considered the unique, only known example of the type. 2 kuna pieces were minted in planned quantities.

In these years artistically far superior patterns were made for many denominations in different metals, of which 10-20 is known of each, but since this circulation 1 kuna was uninteresting probably not more than a few, or even possibly that single one was ever made anyway.

You can read natko's original post here.




The image above shows the issued 2 kune coin.

It was actually issued in 1944 but was dated 1941.

The photo was taken by forum member Zantetsuken.

[<k>]

Another beautiful image of a gold Croatian 25 banica pattern, courtesy of the German auction house, Gorny & Mosch.

[<k>]

A high quality image of a wartime gold pattern of the Croatian kuna, courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.