Coins are one of the most basic ways governments have historically spoken to their people. Frequently, they tell you who is in charge. In the Roman Empire, money traveled faster than news. A change of portraits on coinage was how people often learned there was a new emperor. Many monarchies, including today’s constitutional monarchies, continue to put the king or queen on their money. Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, is not only on her own country’s money but also on that of all the independent Commonwealth nations.
Non-monarchies, on the other hand, generally do not. Even megalomaniacs like Stalin and Hitler never put their faces on coinage. In the United States, it’s illegal to put a living person’s likeness on money. The law was passed in 1873 after several people put themselves on US paper money.
But just because you don’t stamp your face on a coin doesn’t mean you can’t use the coin for propaganda. French coins have traditionally born the name Republique Francaise (Republic of France, also abbreviated to RF, even on today’s French euros) the national motto liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity),and the image of Marianne, the embodiment of France, liberty, and reason.
During WWII, when France was occupied by Germany, Marianne vanished from the coinage, and the country was labeled Etat Francais (the French State). Most disturbingly, the motto was changed to travail, famille, patrie (work, family, fatherland). The Nazis made it very clear right there on the coinage: no more liberty or equality for you, and the French were reminded of it every time they made a purchase.
My friend,
It is always gratifying to me to see the words of another who pays attention to coins and what coins tell us about history. While Nazi Germany did quickly and successfully invade France in June of 1940, that invasion did not immediately result in a nation under complete occupation. The government of the defeated Republic of France fled to the U.K. and made efforts to carry on as a government in exile. A good portion of France, including Paris, was administered by the Germans as occupied territory. The remainder of France was run by a new rightist (if not quite fascist) French government under WW1 hero, Marshall Phillipe Petain. This government referred to itself as Etat Francais and was administered from the city of Vichy. I have before me two French 1 Franc coins. One is from the French Republic, dated 1941. The other is from the French State, dated 1942. The differences are many and stark. Not only is Marianne absent from the Etat coin, her image has been replaced by a double-headed axe, the battle standard of Marshall Petain. The twin cornucopia on the reverse of the Republican coin have given way to oak leaf clusters on the Etat design. As the German war efforts faltered, Vichy France was effectively absorbed into occupied France.
Regards,
Bill