Theresienstadt Ghetto currency display

[Wagriff]

The 50M is going to be the bad one and the 10M in presentable shape isn't all that easy either! It took me awhile to find decent pieces to make the entire set, but it's always better to buy the best you can afford and not worry about rushing it. I never did pick up any of the Litzmannstadt coinage, though, as I never did have a good feeling about it. There are tons of fake coins out there and in an endless variety of metals and, again, they've been "restruck" also- who knows knows many times. Personally, I don't believe that there Is a fool proof method of authenticating them-if there ever actually Were real ones to begin with. A point I've always debated, so I basically skipped them entirely. I really Should post this collection some time, I suppose-as I've been kicking the idea around for some time, but it does take a great deal of photo taking which takes time, so who knows. Currency and coin collecting for the era is a much overlooked but fascinating branch of the hobby and is always fun to hunt! Good luck on your sets!

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

You are quite right William about the extremely high level of fakes. I must admit that if it was not for Carl locating these items for me I would steer well clear of it all , the main way of spotting a fake from what I understand is the fact that the paper used is much better quality than the originals! That said I would still only buy a piece if it came from Carl or was given the thumbs up here on the forum , some of the old fakes have aged well!! Leon.

[StefanM]

If you look closely at the Hebrew text "thou shalt not kill" is covered by Moses's hand on the tablet, this was on the orders of Heydrich himself! Leon.

IMO this just one of those collectors myths...



...On the note above the hand of Moses is not in the right place to be covering the sixth Aseret ha-Dibrot (or the Ten Declarations) in Judaism which is: " You shall not Murder" rather than "You shall not Kill". A Rabbinical distinction is made between criminal killing ie Murder and "killing" which is sometimes necessary and therefore not criminal or sinful.



From the above it is clear that Moses's hand would need to cover the first line on the left tablet in the ordering of the sixth declaration and therefore his arm would obscure almost all of the tablet sections depicted on the note and cut across Moses beard and chin...so IMO the placement of the gesturing hand is for artistic reasons rather than by a diktat from Heydrich.


Stefan

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi Stefan , thank you for that information , very interesting to learn that one as I do not read Hebrew! I do note however that you still cannot see the "murder" commandment though! Leon.

[StefanM]

I agree, but all of the right tablet declarations are not visible in full.

Again IMO this is for aesthetics rather than by diktat. Moses's head is placed slightly off-center leaving some empty space to frame that side of the face - this is conventional portraiture.

[CARL]

Nicely presented Leon, well done.

Regarding the artwork, Heydrich did indeed influence the design. I addressed the matter in this thread a while ago:

Heydrich and the Theresienstadt banknotes

I have an image of the original sketch in a book somewhere - it is markedly different from the example present on the notes that were cleared by the authorities.

The examples that are commonly found today are generally in UNC (uncirculated) condition. These are almost always 1970's produced notes that were produced using the original plates at the Czech National Bank - which is shown in the attached thread. I know of experienced numismatic collectors who have absolutely no issue with these examples not being produced during the period, they simply prefer a better quality example. One even told me that he feels they are genuine examples as they were produced on the same machines - just thirty years later. Personally, I prefer the worn pieces.

[CARL]

Remember with these that ONLY the Zwanzig (20), Fünfzig (50) and Hundert (100) Kronen denominations are watermarked. See the images in this thread for details:

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/photos...rrency-133189/

Regards,

Carl

p.s. Nice use of the period images and USHMM map in the display Leon, well thought out.

[StefanM]

"When Reinhard Heydrich was presented with Klein's design for the banknotes, he ordered that the image of Moses should be altered, stating that it appeared "too Aryan". Heydrich instructed the artist to adapt the image so that it resembled the classic Nazi caricature of the Jew. Hence, the larger ears, long hooked nose and curly hair were added. Another, unconfirmed story is that a further directive from Heydrich was added concerning the tablet that the caricature holds. The Ten Commandments where allowed to be present, however, Heydrich insisted that the caricature's hand be placed over the commandment "Thou Shall Not Kill"."

What is the original source for this reference? I would also like to compare traditional Jewish representations of Moses with the portrait on the note to see if what is attributed to Heydrich is as uncorroborated as the hand covering "thou shall not kill" appears to be.

[CARL]

The source is The International Engraver's Line by Gene Hessler. However, as you have stated above, the information regarding the placement of the hand over the commandment "Thou Shall Not Kill" is patently incorrect. The adjustment to the design of the Jewish "Moses" caricature is known to be true though - I have both the original design by artist Petr Klein and the later, adjusted design as used on the banknotes in a book. Further, the engraving was done by Jindra Schmidt. In Campbell's earlier work, he refers to the portrait being prepared for use on the notes by Schmidt but Feller+Feller's highly regarded work states that Klein drew the original sketches and Schmidt was the engraver.

Regards,

Carl

p.s. Your earlier post, no.13, was excellent - well done!

[CARL]

Fortunately, I have the book with me here - and not in my library 1,000 miles away! This is the image that patently shows the marked differences. The image on the left is based on Klein's original sketch, the one to the right the amended design later used on the Theresienstadt notes. This image was taken from the Feller+Feller work - which credits the aforementioned Hessler work.