Nazi Occupation coins

A month or two ago I took an interest in coins of the Third Reich. I've been looking at nazi occupation coins on ebay and I wondered if they were coins minted in germany for occupied countries or if maybe they were minted by germany in the occupied country. Anybody out there give me any insight into these coins?  I just bought a small lot of occupation coins from Belgium. What other countries did the nazis have occupation coinage in? Thanks for your help.  

Norway, Belgium, Netherlands..... countries with an occupation type government. They didn't issue coins for places with a puppet government, for example the General Government of Poland. Vichy France produced their own currency locally. Possibly Danzig, not sure about that.

The scarce German issues with the hole in the center were used as occupation coinage throughout the occupied countries.

My guess is that the occupation issues were minted locally as all German issues were struck with a mintmark.

Here's a pretty useful website:

http://www.luckylukeonline.com/history.html

There were no special coins for Danzig during WWII, but if you look at the war period coinage under German rule or influence, I'd add Bohemia and Moravia protectorate 1940-44, Slovakia 1939-44, Serbia 1942-43, Croatia 1941 issues, to name a few. Note also that all German coins dated 1938-1944 with B mint mark came from Vienna mint in Austria. For Poland the Germans issued 2 zinc coins with old dies dated 1923 but struck in 1941-44
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces9811.html
There were also allied occupation zinc coins w/o swastika in 1945-47 https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces15746.html
All in all, the WWII is a very interesting and popular area of collecting, whether you collect coins issued under the control of one alliance or both.  

Cita: AndreyFor Poland the Germans issued 2 zinc coins...

I count four in total, with an option to include the no hole 5 Groszy as a fifth.

In the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia there were minted poor-quality zinc coins by Vichr a spol. company. It was a company producing metal furniture. It was selected as a quick replacement of the Kremnica mint in Slovakia (which became satellite of Germany independent from the protectorate during the war) which was a traditional mint before and after the war in the Czechoslovak Republic. Slovakia minted its own coins in Kremnica during the war.

Cita: torontokuba

Cita: AndreyFor Poland the Germans issued 2 zinc coins...

I count four in total, with an option to include the no hole 5 Groszy as a fifth.

True. I was just giving examples. Writing of Poland I wanted to draw attention to the coins with pre-WWII dates (should have also mentioned 50 Groszy 1938) which were issued during WWII German occupation. My list was not exhaustive. Polish occupation coinage collection could also include scarce Lodz Ghetto tokens.   
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10810.html

Serbian zinc coins during German WWII occupation were minted in Budapest, also the Bulgarian puppet kingdom coins, ally of Germany were minted there.

Would Litzmannstadt Ghetto coinage fit into German occupation?  Their city was pretty much turned into a forced labor camp to produce for the Axis Machine.  So big they had their own coinage...

10 Pfennig:  https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces41222.html
5 Marks:  https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10810.html
10 Marks:  https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10846.html
20 Marks: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10842.html

Cita: Diego KnyteWould Litzmannstadt Ghetto coinage fit into German occupation?  Their city was pretty much turned into a forced labor camp to produce for the Axis Machine.  So big they had their own coinage...

10 Pfennig:  https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces41222.html
5 Marks:  https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10810.html
10 Marks:  https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10846.html
20 Marks: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10842.html

 This is amazing bit of history I did not know about! thanks for sharing the knowledge!

Wh not to add Romanian and Denmark coins?

Finland changed metals for the period as well. The country was in union with the Germany.

There were also coins of Albania occupied by Italy, such as this one
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces11790.html ,
Allied Occupation Coinage for Belgium
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3103.html
and 2 Franks mint in the US for liberated Algeria
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1179.html

One can also add coins from the war in the Pacific
like this Japanese occupation coin for Netherlands East Indies
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces24740.html
of for Japanese puppet states in China, like this one
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces15427.html and many others

There were internment camps for German nationals in the Allied countries during the WWII. I have in my collection this token from South Africa
http://avscoins.com/en/coin/5616/union-internment-camps-penny/

Does anybody know if there were German tokens for WWII concentration camps, other than Lodz Ghetto mentioned above? There were many in the WWI, but what about the second war?  

Thanks for all the information, all of it very interesting and very helpful. Keep it coming!    

Hello,

A few months ago, manxcat12 wrote a Numisdc article: World War II - Occupation and emergency coinages of Europe. I think you should read it  

Have a nice day,
J.

Cita: JedsadaHello,

A few months ago, manxcat12 wrote a Numisdc article: World War II - Occupation and emergency coinages of Europe. I think you should read it  

Have a nice day,
J.

 Thank you for showing me this really excellent article.  It's very interesting and contains a lot of information. I'm enjoying reading this immensely   Thanks again   Charlie  

The article is generally useful, though there are unessential mistakes there.

Cita: cyprusalexanderThe article is generally useful, though there are unessential mistakes there.

Still, I'm finding a wealth of information.   Thanks again to everyone.  

This kind of information for each individual coin needs to be linked to its coin page, like Wikipedia style. This would make Numista very prominent piece of literature and learning

Cita: redsmithstudiosThis kind of information for each individual coin needs to be linked to its coin page, like Wikipedia style. This would make Numista very prominent piece of literature and learning

  I  totally agree! I really like this site, but this is the one real lack on the page when I look up a coin - some kind of background history of the coin.

Some of the zinc coins of Slovakia have survived remarkably well:

http://www.elfreeman2.com/12/k2584o.jpg

http://www.elfreeman2.com/12/k2584r.jpg

Other than Lodz Ghetto, I cannot think of any World War II concentration camp coins. There are, however, a number of camps that issued currency.

The Polish coins are different from most others, in that the dies were dated and used in previous years; the Germans just changed the alloys.

In addition to the occupation coinages, some countries also had coins issued by the governments in exile.

If you want to expand farther, you could collect coinages struck in unusual mints, due to the war. These would include British Commonwealth countries' coins struck in U. S. mints (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, etc.); French colonial coinages minted in South Africa; Greenland 25 ore 1926 holed in the USA to avoid confusion with Danish coins, during the US occupation of Greenland; Curacao and Surinam coinages minted in U. S. mints; etc.

There is a small book, "Foreign Coins Struck at United States Mints" (1965) by Altz and Barton that documents all the coins minted from 1876 through 1963 by U. S. mints for foreign governments. It has a wealth of information (it does not include anything from Franklin Mint, since it did not strike coins until 1969 (Tunisia)).

Well I just learned a few things. Till now I thought the Litzmannstadt Ghetto coinage (that I have seen on eBay) was fake. I never thought it really existed. Darn it! Do I now have to collect those as well?

Cita: "Kipsley"​Well I just learned a few things. Till now I thought the Litzmannstadt Ghetto coinage (that I have seen on eBay) was fake. I never thought it really existed. Darn it! Do I now have to collect those as well?

​Yes, but be careful. Read up on them, and check out your seller. They have been counterfeited for years--the Pick Up Points (PUPs) to identify the fakes were published in the 1960s; so the counterfeiters changed their dies and made more of them!!

(On the other hand, the existence of fakes has probably kept the prices down!)