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Overview
This 5 reichspfennig coin was issued by the Third Reich government in 1940. On the reverse is the emblem of Nazi Germany: a stylised eagle clutching a wreathed swastika.
The heraldic eagle had been used on German soil since the time of Charlemagne and was adopted on many German coats of arms including those of the German Empire (1871-1918) and Weimar Republic (1918-1933). The swastika was an ancient Eurasian motif appropriated by the Nazi Party in the 1920s and associated with the idea of a racially ‘pure’ state. As the most recognizable symbol of the Nazi regime, the swastika came to represent fascism, terror, and the atrocities committed during the Holocaust.
Te Papa collected the coin in 2008 for the purposes of education and to remove it from commercial circulation.
References:
- Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. n.d. ‘Federal coat of arms’. Domestic Protocol Office of the Federal Government.
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2017. ‘History of the Swastika’. Holocaust Encyclopedia.