Yesterday I went to the exhibit DEFACED! Money, Conflict, Protest, which is taking place at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, until May 20th.
It is quite a bit smaller than it was at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The catalogue of the exhibit is sold in the AGO's giftshop and, fortunately, it is the original catalogue covering the entire exhibit. It is a large, high quality paperback, and at CAN$57.95, it is very reasonably priced.
Here are some photos taken with an iPad first generation (2014) which doesn't have a flash, so copper coins do not come out very clear. You'll find better pictures online if you search defaced money conflict in Google Images.
These are PowerPoint slides saved as JPG (a trick that few people seem to know). I slightly enhanced the photos in PowerPoint.
I have to ask, what is that first language in the first photo. Some kind of Indian one or Esperanto?
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
@Camerinvs During my time in China I collected 2 1Yuan notes that had been defaced by the Fulang Gang group and here in Thailand finding coins with the king defaced is quite common. Did you see any such items in this exhibit?
There was another reply by a profile with a woman's name which has entirely disappeared ("cassandrepe" or something like that). Was it identified as a bot??
Anyway, the Spock fivers have attracted some attention. I don't know whether any coin store would sell them if they are an illegal tampering with money. (Likewise, the counterfeit toonies is not something they would advertise and sell since they are (of course) illegal.)
There was another reply by a profile with a woman's name which has entirely disappeared ("cassandrepe" or something like that). Was it identified as a bot??
Anyway, the Spock fivers have attracted some attention. I don't know whether any coin store would sell them if they are an illegal tampering with money. (Likewise, the counterfeit toonies is not something they would advertise and sell since they are (of course) illegal.)
It's Anishinaabemowin aka Ojibwe, an indigenous language.
You can see they have had a ridiculously hard time to translate “DEFACED!” — E-ZHI-PKAAN-DENGWEKAAJIGAADEG!
Oh okay
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
A bit disappointing to hear that the exhibit is not as big as was expected. Is there a separate fee for the exhibit or it’s part of the general admission. While I’m a stones throw away from the AGO, I’ve never actually gone in
From what I can see, it's mostly the artistic displays which have been removed, not the coins and notes themselves. One of the things that most interested the visitors who happened to go through these rooms was a case with sculptures made of banknotes. That's one of the few things for which I didn't care to read the labels.
The cost of a day's visit to the AGO is $30 and includes all the exhibits except for one. Add $5 and you get a year's membership. I didn't think it was worth it for me since I don't expect to return to it within a year, but then I didn't know there was a discount in the bookstore if you are a member.
You can skip the exhibit and access the gift/bookshop from the main entrance. Still, I was pleasantly surprised with the collection. Here are some of my pics:
Those are beautiful. That $5 extra yearly charge is great in my opinion - as if you are a resident you can visit often.
However I think $30 is steep for a one off visit by say a tourist. I think $10 or $15 seems reasonable with the option to donate more, then again I notice that price is for everything!
Here in Auckland our Museum is free to ratepayers and residents (A utility bill or bus card suffices) except visiting exhibitions which cost around $20 (An Egypt one I saw last year was worth it) and donations are encouraged. Everyone else its a $5 donation and more if you want, exhibitions cost extra. Everyone pays the same for an exhibition regardless of origin, although they usually ask where you are from if not Auckland and you can refuse to answer. Usual discounts for elderly, students and children, although the new right wing government has quashed discounts for the poor and benefit receivers (Not that they visit museums much in general).
I loved the 1980s emigrant lounge, reminds me of ours - always had the “best furniture” which our grubby behinds could not sit on and Dad and Mum's chairs (Kids always got the couch and the floor if we had guests). Same with chintzy china cabinet of old crockery and doo dads no one ever touched let alone use. We also had no shoes in the house (Unless it was a “white” visitor) and no feet on furniture. I put my waewaes (feet) on the couch and I got a slap with a newspaper or a fire poker depending on what was closer!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
I would consider the $35 annual pass. Wonder if it’s transferable? I’ll reserve going there for a rainy weekend afternoon perhaps
went for an evening walk to get my 10k steps in. The Glass facade was looking particularly majestic in the sun light. But I couldnt quite capture it on the phone
Those are beautiful. That $5 extra yearly charge is great in my opinion - as if you are a resident you can visit often.
However I think $30 is steep for a one off visit by say a tourist. I think $10 or $15 seems reasonable with the option to donate more, then again I notice that price is for everything!
I live about an hour away from Toronto. So I figured I would have no reason to buy the membership pass, but actually there is a lot more in there that I didn't see and would like to see, so not taking the pass was a mistake.
Not very far from there, something like a 5- to 10-minute walk, is the Royal Ontario Museum. If you do both museums, it gets to be an expensive day.
Here in Auckland our Museum is free to ratepayers and residents (a utility bill or bus card suffices) except visiting exhibitions which cost around $20 (an Egypt one I saw last year was worth it) and donations are encouraged. Everyone else its a $5 donation and more if you want, exhibitions cost extra.
I believe museums in Ottawa are free on Tuesday, so that at least the local population can plan their visit anytime for free. If you're a tourist you may have no choice but to pay an admission fee.
I went to the British Museum in 2018 and the system you describe was pretty much the same there.
Usual discounts for elderly, students and children, although the new right wing government has quashed discounts for the poor and benefit receivers (not that they visit museums much in general).
It's much easier for the right wing to take anything they can away from the poor than to tax their privileged friends. Welfare is not good, except of course corporate welfare…
I loved the 1980s emigrant lounge, reminds me of ours - always had the “best furniture” which our grubby behinds could not sit on and Dad and Mum's chairs (Kids always got the couch and the floor if we had guests). Same with chintzy china cabinet of old crockery and doo dads no one ever touched let alone use. We also had no shoes in the house (unless it was a “white” visitor) and no feet on furniture. I put my waewaes (feet) on the couch and I got a slap with a newspaper or a fire poker depending on what was closer!
I posted those pics in the hope it would resonate with some “numistists”. I know people in the Italian community here and it was very much the same principle at work for the 1940s-1960s wave of immigrants.
ashlobo
I would consider the $35 annual pass. Wonder if it’s transferable? I’ll reserve going there for a rainy weekend afternoon perhaps
went for an evening walk to get my 10k steps in. The Glass facade was looking particularly majestic in the sun light. But I couldnt quite capture it on the phone
It's actually a pretty good picture! If you want to see the Defaced! exhibit, don't forget that it ends on May 20th.
After the collapse of France's 4th Republic in 1958, Charles De Gaulle had returned to power in a bloodless coup. Visiting Algeria days after taking power, he famously proclaimed ‘Long live French Algeria’. However, De Gaulle soon recognised that this war was unwinnable and called a referendum in January 1961 in which 75% of people voted for Algeria's self determination.
Diehards saw De Gaulle as a traitor and vowed to keep Algeria at all costs. A month after the referendum, Jean-Jacques Susini and Pierre Lagaillarde set up a paramilitary group, the Secret Armed Organisation (OAS). Their motto ‘Strike where it wants, when it wants’, caused further unrest and led to 4 OAS supporting French Generals seizing control of Algeria on the night of 21-22 of April. Although the French authorities finally prevailed, the violence continued - In Paris alone, 47 police officers were killed and 137 wounded.
This 1960 1 franc coin is from one of the bloodiest periods of French history outside of the two World Wars. I found it some years ago discarded in a bag of coins dropped off to a charity shop. When someone stamped OAS onto it, little did they know that it would spark my interest over 60 years later.
Interesting! I found a few more of these online (Google Images).
Greg Brunk recorded an example from a different set of punches on the obverse of a 1950 500-franc coin. Here is his text (NI Bulletin, May-June 2011, p. 64):
The 1978 auction of the Dickerson collection contained a 100 francs stamped OAS, which he interpreted to mean Organization de l’Armee Secret [more correctly: Organisation de l'Armée secrète]. The OAS attempted to assassinate Charles de Gaulle and opposed the independence of Algeria. At that time Algeria was part of France, and its population consisted of many French as well as native Algerians.
I'm lucky that I downloaded the entire set of the NIB to 2020 from the Internet Archive. It has since then been taken down. In the 2008-2012 period there is a series of articles by Brunk on political countermarks, organized in alphabetical order of countries.
Those who may be hoping to take in the Defaced! Money, Conflict & Protest exhibit should wait until the labour dispute is over & the gallery is open once again.
By the way, I have found a satirical piece in the Port of Spain Gazette (1868) that would have been perfect for the exhibit. It is written by someone who signs “Charlesgourde Coupé” (as usual, letter writers sign with a pseudonym). The name is of course French and translates as Charles (III or IV, of Spain), gourde = dollar in French and Créole, coupé (which is of course “cut”), so… a cut Spanish silver dollar claims to be the writer!
It criticizes the shameful state of the currency in Trinidad. The author is very knowledgeable about monetary circulation and I suspect I might be able to identify him. Satire is known in Numismatic- and Economics-related works (e.g. Jonathan Swift), but I don't know of any other piece of this sort, focused as it is on a small colony's problems and addressed to the readership in that small colony.
Anyone got any ideas on why I've now found a second old UK penny over stamped with a figure 8 (I'm trying to find the last one I had, which had multiple 8s - I will post a photo soon)? Does anyone know what the 8 signified? Was it a political protest or some sort of movement? Is it something to do with a club or society? Why not a 4 or a 2 or a 6?
We do have all kinds of numerals and numbers on coins. It's probably just a coincidence that you have an “8” on two different coins.
It wouldn't be political because the message would be meaningless. On top of it, it's just a regular punch, probably from a set. If we had some sort of stylized “8” it might mean something.
So, either someone happened to have a number “8” punch, a coin, and a hammer, and tried the punch on the coin, or else it was used as a token of some sort, e.g. as a coat check.
This Boer Florin I bought, is a nice piece of Trench art. Some one has humourously spiced the portrait of the dour Paul Kruger on this one.
Here Kruger has a Parsons hat and is smoking a pipe.
It was almost certainly done by a anti Boer person during the Boer War of 1899 - 1902, possibly a soldier in the British Empire forces, who were fighting against Kruger's anti British regime.
The coins themselves were an irony, despite being in Afrikaans, they used the English system of currency and were the identical size, shape and weight of the British coins they so despised. Yet they had less silver and were minted in Germany (1892) and Pretoria (1893 - 1902). The biggest irony was when the Boers lost and South Africa became a Union, the Pretoria mint was reopend in 1923 to strike a sterling coinage based along British lines and even gold coinage for the British Empire.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
In this case, “8” is meaningless; it's stamped in all directions and often the stampings overlap.
So, either someone had time to waste or else, and maybe more probably, he defaced the portrait intentionally, as an expression of opposition to the King. Was he a Carlist opposed to Alfonso?
Note that unlike your penny, only the obverse is defaced, and all the punches except one hit the face.
Absolutely, it was that post that inspired me to show my Kruger Florin, as I bought that coin after my last post in this thread. Who knows it may have been the same artist!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
