Nazi-era coin in bag of foreign coins - would that be odd to you?

[EllieQ]

One of the things I cleared out from my late mum’s house was an old money box containing some foreign coins. I decided to have a look through them before donating them, and discovered that among the usual francs/ pesetas etc were a few coins from the 1940s, including a 1942 Reichspfennig with a swastika on one side.

I’ve found this quite unsettling and I’m not sure whether to include it when I donate them to a local charity shop that takes old coins. On one hand, there’s a market for these coins (there’s a few for sale on eBay) and any money raised would benefit the charity. But on the other hand, it feels weird and wrong to me. Am I over-thinking it (I do this a lot) or would other people find it strange too?

Do you mean odd for her to have it or to sell it/donate it? It's just part of a numismatic collection.

I don't think it's that weird for someone who collected unusual coins. I don't think I would personally want that in my house, but your mum clearly didn't mind. I guess it could be considered something of historical interest to a numismatist. I'm sure the charity shop will be used to people donating all manner of dodgy items, so I would let them deal with the ethics of this one.

If they’re valuable collectors items I would sell them and donate the money to the charity.

In what way are you finding it strange? Do you think your mum was a nazi?

Weird to sell/ donate it. I’m not sure if my mum actually knew it was in the collection of coins - I remember the money box being at my Grandma’s house and think my mum brought the money box home after Grandma died (mum was quite sentimental and kept a lot of Grandma’s stuff - ornaments etc) and it was just where odd foreign coins went, not a proper coin collection.

I suppose logically there’s no issue with donating it, it just seems odd to me and makes me feel uncomfortable.

If you are concerned about 'nazi' memorabilia being used to raise money, do you have a museum locally that might take it? If you are in Manchester or London the IWM may be willing.

Other than that, maybe fimd out if there are any wartime re-enactment groups close to you; members try to have period coins on them and there are Wermacht / other German unit groups around. If you're on social media, try searching for 1940s groups as it will bring them up. There is a big group called '1940s Events and Social Space' whose members may be able to help.

No, not at all! She probably didn’t even know it was there - the money box came from my grandma’s house and we continued to use it for any foreign coins that came into the house (left over from holidays).

I wasn’t expecting to see a coin with a swastika in there, and I wondered if other people would feel that way too.

I would be wondering why someone in my family had it, yes. I would keep hold of it too.

I wonder how it got there. Either somebody back in the 40s who collected coins for the kids and brought back, or got their workmates to bring back, coins from every country they had been for work, or a soldier bringing mementoes home from the war.

It's probably the swastika that makes it particularly unsettling, because that symbol packs more of a punch than any other and I, think, perhaps has gained even more weight than it did in the 40s, even during the war itself. Like, back then it was probably on a par with, or just a bit worse than, the Z symbol of Putin's army. Although the Nuremburg rallies would have been on newsreels, people didn't know the full extent of all that went on and most people just had a radio, no TV. So even at the end of the war the average Joe here didn't immediately see many, or any, pictures of the worst of it and nobody know the numerical and geographical extent of it.

But when you see the swastika on that coin now, your brain probably flicks to the images of bodies piled high outside the gas chambers, emaciated people behind barbed wire, the ruins of churches that had been burned with people locked inside, twisted Mengele torture experiments and the sheer scale of it- bodies bulldozed into pits in hundreds or thousands all over Europe, millions and millions wiped out altogether. Back when it was minted, it was just a coin and the people in Germany that used it paid no more heed than we do to the monarch's profile on ours.

My grandfather was a German Jew so may well have had some of those in his pocket when he fled. He would have needed money to pay for safe passage. I think it's fine, it's a part of history and we shouldn't cover it up if we want to learn from it.

I collected stamps when I was a teenager and still have my album. There are quite a lot of historic stamps in the collection, including several from Nazi Germany. They are in a completely separate place to my German stamps, but are fascinating because of the history and propaganda (an airmail stamp has a swastika in the centre of the sun and the idealistic imagery contrasts horribly with what we know was going on). If I saw a collection in a charity shop I wouldn’t think twice about a few Nazi coins or stamps within. If they made up the entire album I might, but if I sold or donated my stamp collection I wouldn’t remove them.

I know nothing about old coins ,but wss it common currency at the time ?
If so.its not the fault of whoever was given the going all.the things the swastika represents.

It's just one of a collection of old coins. I would be interested to find it, not troubled.

Having a German coin from the 40s hardly makes her Nazi-adjacent.

Possibly a souvenir. Lots were taken off corpses or out of deceased soldiers pockets by Allied troops. I found a Nazi belt in a family member’s belongings. A friend of mine (very high ranking armed forces officer) found a Nazi dagger in his dad’s stuff.

@powershowerforanhour I think you’re right about how it has more meaning to us now because we know much more about what happened in Nazi Germany than people did at the time. I hadn’t thought of it that way before. I suppose at the time it may have just been a curiosity - a souvenir soldiers brought home from the war.

As to how it got there, my grandad was in a reserved occupation (farmer) during WW2, but a great-uncle was in the Merchant Navy, so could have brought foreign coins back with him.

I would be wary of selling it because you have practically no way of screening for history buffs vs people with less than defensible reasons for wanting it.

I would seek advice from a local museum or history society to see if there was anywhere I could donate it to or failing that I’d chuck it in a decent sized river or the sea.

It's just a coin, probably of limited value, probably one of hundreds of thousands still floating around 'out there' that displaced refugees probably carried far and wide with them. If you had found a chest full of Nazi SS memorabilia, empty canisters of Zyclon B and signed copy of Mein Kampf I would suggest not applying to appear on 'Who do you think you are'

You're overreacting. Your mother probably had no idea it was there.
There are still very old coins floating about here and there. A few years ago at work when I was checking the change from the bank, one of the 5p bags was full of old sixpences, which are virtually the same size as a 5p coin.
If you want to get rid of it just chuck it down a grid

It's just a coin. One of millions minted back then.
Yes, it's weird to come face to face with a swastika on a prosaic item and suddenly be hit by the reality of those times. But you're massively overthinking the significance of it. And unless it's a rare specimen of its type and in perfect conditions, it's worth little. I've just seen one for sale for £1.99.

My grandfather was a POW in Germany during the Second World War. POWs brought these home by the handful as souveniers. I'd have no problem in donating it. It's an historical artifact.

I think it would be unethical for you to sell it OP and I think you should take care about whose hands it might end up in. I wouldn't donate it to a charity shop, but would see if a local museum would accept it or would give you some guidance on another museum or organisation that might accept it.

There are millions of them around. Museums don't need them, and 'the wrong hands' will already have as many as they'd ever need. They're a curiosity and nothing more.

I agree it's a curiosity. I have one, which was in a coin collection sold at auction and bought for me by my parents when I was a kid and collected coins. It's not worth much, I just keep it with all the other coins.

It’s just a coin! And I’m married to a German and live in Germany. Stop overthinking it! Good grief.

It may well "just" be a curiosity but in many countries it would be illegal to sell it. It's extremely insensitive to dismiss people's objections to or feelings about an item that bears such a strong racist and destructive symbol. The OP is not wrong to question how best to dispose of it and shows that unlike some posters, she has a strong moral compass.