My numismatic adventure №1 - Norway 1939

Guys, I have been using steemit for quite a while now and recently it came to me, that there are almost no (or very few) posts about collections.

I have seen a few, but they are so "very well hidden", that I have decided that the time had come to change that!

I will be making a series about my coin collection (and before you guys ask... I have been collecting for almost 25 years now). But, I would like to make it a bit special, so in each post I will be writing some brief history and my thoughts about the coins.

I would like to start from my collection of WWII coins:

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The coin itself

• Norway 1939 (KM# 371) 2 ORE - Bronze (4gr) ; mintage - 4,420,000 ; My valuation - 2EUR

Obverse: Reverse:
(you may click on the coins to enlarge the image)

• Norway 1939 (KM# 368) 5 ORE - Bronze (8gr) ; mintage - 1,370,000 ; My valuation - 7EUR

Obverse: Reverse:
(you may click on the coins to enlarge the image)

A bit of history

Both coins are Norwegian, and both were minted under the rule of Haakon VII. You can see his monogram on the coin.

As a king he was much retained from "ruling" the country, and gained quite a bit of sympathy from the people of Norway. In fact he didn’t interfere much in politics at all.

Both coins were minted prior to the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940, so it’s not much I can say about it here. In fact in this year Norway declared neutrality amongst other European countries.

A few big airports opened in this year and Norway’s first female Prime Minister was just born.

In 1939, the Krone was pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 4.4 Krone = 1 dollar (later, pegged to the Reichsmark). The standard of living in those years became poorer. However, due to the strong deflation, some experienced an increase in real wages.

My thoughts

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information of what those coins could buy at the time, so I will be glad if you could point me onto any information as such.

I do believe that these coins (especially the 2 ore) an everyday asset of any average citizen.

As for the coin value today, it is clear that due to the lower minting at time and due to a slightly better condition the 5 ore is much more valuable in this collection.

Factory life in 1939 in Norway (beer at the staff canteen)

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All pictures of coins are from my own collection

Image Source

Historical Sources - 1 ; 2