Was there much of a coin collecting hobby in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact during the Cold War?

SanctionII

Same question for No. Korea, Cuba and other communist nations today; and for other nations in the world today that are totalitarian in nature.

My suspicions are that any hobby presence in these countries is "underground" [for regular folk] and is "aboveground" only for the lucky few persons who exist at the top of these nations who have access to resources and power not availalbe to the average citizen.

Swampboy

I wonder if there are any 'hoards' of American coins in Cuba?

There probably wasn't any 'collecting' going on there or the Warsaw Pact nations. Too conspicous and dangerous is my thought.

Walmann

Most likely any collector of "pre-soviet or regime" coins would have to do so in low key or even hidden manner.

Money with all its "political" adornments and connections to either a monarchy or other political system would be considered counter- revolutionary.

This is not to be confused with hard contemporary currencies. The people, even more so government officals, have a great hunger for foreign or "hard" currency. Witness this first hand back in the late 70's and early 80's.

bidask

The are above ground in Russia........has been until recently a very hot market...more so than U.S. I suspect.

darktone

My fathers side of the family is from Russia. My father came to the US around 1957. I have never heard of anyone in that side of the family collecting coins except for the monetary value. Really don't think they had any coins to collect during the war. My Dad did collect coins when he came to the US. Too bad the one he entrusted to me was stold in the burglury last weekend....

TwoSides2aCoin

It's the hobby of kings, not dictators.

cladking

Coin collecting was suppressed in the Soviet Union but not actively. It was considered
something akin to a minor moral weakness which did nothing to advance the interests
of the state. I believe there was a single coin club in the entire country and it was in Mos-
cow. Members were often very active in trading but there was no interest in Soviet era
coins except the earliest issues. There was no known setting aside of moderns certainly.
Most of the interest was in czarist and foreign coins.

I doubt it's known to this date how widely available the Soviet coins are but they can
sell for many multiples of catalog now days in unc. One has to suspect that these wouldn't
be available at all if not for the 10 or 15,000 mint sets sold each year mostly in the United
States. These are flowing back to the home market now days.

cladking

I understand there are some passionate Cuban collectors but I know
nothing specific about them. I'd be surprised if coin collecting were even
on the radar screen in North Korea since it is an extremely impoverished
country.

Coin collecting in modern times tends to be a middle class pursuit except
in Latin America and some South American countries where it's also an in-
terest of poorer people.

zeebob

I bet if you posted this thread on the darkside forum, there would be collectors in the former Soviet Republics that would have first hand information.

Just a thought. I'm interested to know other people's opinion on the topic.

The Chinese are another people that I've often wondered about. They have a long and rich history, but when I visit China I don't hear much about coin collecting (except about how I should be careful not to buy fakes at the Silk Street Market).

cladking

The Polish coin market was much more vibrant during the cold war. I doubt
the authorities liked it any more than the Soviets but it wasn't actively sup-
pressed here either. It might be a black mark on one's record which could
keep you out of the communist party but it was largely just frowned upon.

The Polish were interested in very old (16th- 18th century) Polish coins as
well as more modern and more diverse coinages. Even moderns recieved
some interest. There was a very diverse array of coins and probas being is-
sued by the state mint through much of this era.

edix2001

<< <i>I wonder if there are any 'hoards' of American coins in Cuba?

There probably wasn't any 'collecting' going on there or the Warsaw Pact nations. Too conspicous and dangerous is my thought. >>



I think David Lange has an article about US coins in Central America in this month's Numismatist. He briefly mentions Cuba there. I think he wrote that at one point they were using holed half dimes in circulation valued at 2 1/2 cents. Prolly pre-Castro.

And I would assume many people in the USSR/Warsaw, etc. collected the various commemorative coins issued by the USSR. Who else would be the prime market? After all, coins have long been a tool of propaganda.

Along those lines, from my own collection, illustrated below, is a typical East German commem (right) which pays homage to the tearing down of the Berlin wall, and a fantasy propaganda piece (left) making fun of the East German commems. These are a great pair, IMHO. I've also got the West German 10 Mark commem of 1991 that depicts that same Brandenburg gate to make a triple play collection.

edix2001

And these are truly underground (altho medals - also from my collection) that were minted by the Solidarity movement in Poland during martial law:

lordmarcovan

I dunno about during the Communist era, but I was recently consigned a small lot of Russian proof sets that I thought were just run of the mill sets because of their very modest Krause catalog value. The lot of sets (less than ten) ended up going over $800, and the winning bidder was in Russia. Krause value on the sets was something like seven or eight bucks apiece.

As far as 'hoards' of American coins in Cuba goes, I would say it is entirely possible, even likely. Think of all the safe deposit boxes that got seized when Castro took power fifty years ago. Think of how many of those belonged to Americans, who were stashing their gold offshore. I believe my grandparents were among these folks. I remember my grandmother telling me the story of some "Napoleon" gold coins she'd saved for her grandchildren that got stolen just before we were born.