Dictators on Money

[skeeeeezo]

Did Joesph Stalin ever appear on Russian money? How about Hugo Chavez on the Venezuelan money? Fidel on Cuban?

[Saor Alba]

Fidel Castro is the only one, and only in a small vignette on the reverse of the old 1 Peso note from the 1980's where he was depicted from his entrance into Havana in 1959 in a jeep.

 

Chairman Mao is on all current Chinese banknotes, as Kim Il Sung is on all current and many former North Korean banknotes. Saddam Hussein was infamously depicted on Iraqi banknotes.

[see323]

That's an interesting topic.

[akdrv]

Franco on Spanish coins, but not banknotes, as far as I know.

 

Turkmenbashi Niyazov in Turkmenistan.

[Rhino]

Although Stalin did not appear on Russian money, he did appear on the Czech 50 and 100 Korun coins in 1949. But never on Russian currency.

[Saor Alba]

It is interesting that Stalin never had his image on money, given that he largely downplayed Lenin after he firmly established his control after the purges in 1937-8. Of course he was not an attractive person - and he knew it.

[klark]

Nicolae Ceausescu has not appeared on any bill or any coin!

Are many dictators who have appeared on coins or banknotes: Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, etc..

[Saor Alba]

Nicolae Ceausescu has not appeared on any bill or any coin!

Are many dictators who have appeared on coins or banknotes: Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, etc..

 

 

Nicolae the Impaler was too ugly to make his mark on money - and too busy building monomaniacal palaces in Bucharest. He didn't even have a whole lot of statues like most dictators. He sure did his best to try to destroy a wonderful people and country.

[Saor Alba]

Pol Pot,

 

 

Of all of them Pol Pot has the unique distinction of outlawing all forms of money - so putting his ugly mug on money would have been a mute point anyway.

[klark]

Vlad Tepes was a Wallachian prince! And he should not be confused with Nicolae Ceausescu!

Vlad Tepes, impale them on the traitors and Turkish conquerors! Thieves and murderers were the same impalement! but it was a common practice in those days, just as Vlad Tepes, he does very often! fields mentioned in the chronicles of the time were filled with thousands of Turkish soldiers impalement.

 

Nicolae Ceausescu was a dictator with a huge personality cult! And the People's House, Palace of Parliament today was his dream of worship!

 

 

Besides he has destroyed almost all the old buildings, and block built in their place! That happened in several cities! His dream was that all the peasants to stay on the block!

 

Look at this video on youtube:

 

 

It says Ceausescu wanted to release a new series of banknotes and they should be taken protretul or images with his achievements (People's House, the Iron Gates Dam, atomic power plant in Cernavoda, Bucharest Subway, etc..), Otherwise pattern appeared some pattern coins with the portrait of Ceausescu ...

 

One of them can be seen here:

http://romaniancoins.org/ro100lei1984.html

 

Yet we must not forget other dictators in the history of Romania:

 

-Gheorghiu Dej, the leader of Romania during 1948-1965. He imposed a Stalinist regime in Romania and the nationalization of all wealth and property!

 

-Ion Antonescu, the leader of Romania during 1940-1944. He led Romania to perdition in World War II with Nazi Germany. Imposed in romania a very tough regime and contributed to the Holocaust.

 

-Horia Sima, leader of Romania with Antonescu in 1940 and leader of the Legionary Movement (an extremist organization like the SS)

Romania was named in 1940, National Legionary State.

 

-King Carol II, King of Romania during 1930-1940, he imposed a system is very tough, called royal dictatorship. He banned political parties and reduced the freedoms of citizens.

 

Others dictators in Europe would be:

 

-Vladimir Voronin, President of the Republic of Moldova between 2001-2009.

 

-Igor Smirnov, leader of the unrecognized republic of Transnistria in 1991 until now.

 

-Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus since 1994.

[skeeeeezo]

What note did Mussolini appear on?

[Rhino]

What note did Mussolini appear on?

 

As far as I know, Mussolini did not appear on Italian currency. There are some coins with Mussolini on them, but I'm pretty sure they are fantasy pieces (one side has Mussolini, the other has a lion).

 

Others who may know more about Italian currency, feel free to correct me, but I'm pretty sure that Italian currency of WWII only had the King on there at the time.

[Saor Alba]

Yes, Vittorio Emannuel was the King of Italy until 1946, and he was on the larger denomination coins - sometimes in a military helmet.

 

BTW some dictators didn't put themselves on currency, Anastasio Somoza Garcia was the dictator of Nicaragua from the 1930's until his death in 1956, curiously his daughter was on the Nicaraguan Cordoba until 1960:

 

 

[Drusus]

Here are a few dictators on coins I have in my collection:

 

Mobutu Sese Seko

 

 

Saddam Hussein (I have a few of him)

 

 

Stalin

 

 

Franco

[jeromecollection]

Hello

Jean-Bédel Bokassa

In Centrafican republique

 

http://www.numismondo.com/pm/caf/index1.htm

[Drusus]

Bokassa was a real winner

 

[nutmegcollector]

Here is a partial list of all the dictators I can think of:

 

Indonesia: Sukarno

 

Iran: Shah Pahlavi

 

Libya: Qaddafi

 

Uganda: Idi Amin

 

Yugoslavia: Josip Tito

 

Zaire: Mobutu

 

Burma: Aung San

 

Central African Republic: Bokassa

 

Republic of China: Chiang Kai-Shek

 

People's Republic of China: Mao Tse-Tung

[nutmegcollector]

A few more:

 

Haiti: Francois Duvalier

 

[img

Iran: Ayatollah Khomeini

 

Iraq: Saddam Hussein

 

North Korea: Kim Il Sung

[Saor Alba]

Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill would qualify in 21st century terminology of dictator. He basically despised the Supreme Court, circumvented the US constitution and dared anyone to challenge him. He had an arrogance to him unbecoming of a leader of the United States. He was on a personal "mission" to destroy everybody he "thought" was responsible for allegedly killing his beloved wife. So political opponents, the congress, the Supreme Court, they were all made into enemies.

[thedeadpoint]

Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill would qualify in 21st century terminology of dictator. He basically despised the Supreme Court, circumvented the US constitution and dared anyone to challenge him. He had an arrogance to him unbecoming of a leader of the United States. He was on a personal "mission" to destroy everybody he "thought" was responsible for allegedly killing his beloved wife. So political opponents, the congress, the Supreme Court, they were all made into enemies.

 

Haha. SM never missed a chance to diss Jackson.

[Drusus]

which basically brings up the problem with a thread like this, one persons hero is sometimes anothers dictator. I know people who admire Andrew Jackson....Many many people see Mao Zedong as a visionary and many others revere the Ayatollah that's why I didn't post a lot of the coins I would classify as dictators as others might not agree...The Shah of Iran was posted here but he was a monarch...if we are counting dictatorial or oppressive monarchs then this thread would last forever and would include monarchs and emperors from every nation and every time period.

 

 

I guess Yuan Shih-kai could be considered a dictator

 

 

and Chiang Kai-shek

 

Some would say Jomo Kenyatta was a dictator, other would say he is the father of his country...

[thedeadpoint]

Chiang Kai-shek

 

His head reminds me of both sides of this:

[Saor Alba]

I have friends that still admire Stalin, a lot of people in the former USSR do. I remember having a discussion in Tienanmen Sq. a few years ago that turned to Mao and very rapidly ended because of the police that were all around us. Crazily enough I found anti communist books in English language bookstores in China though - the authorities don't mind what they cannot understand apparently.

[Drusus]

'Dictator' in the end is a somewhat subjective term as we can see from this thread...the dictionary defines a dictator as:

 

a person exercising absolute power, esp. a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.

 

So this would rule out any hereditary monarch such as Vittorio Emanuele. But it can also be a descriptive word if a person is 'like a dictator' such as dictatorial. Of course most if not all of these men did not call themselves dictator and most probably didn't think of themselves as a dictator and some may not have even planned to become one.

 

I compiled a biography of Mobutu and it seems Mobutu thought of himself as a father figure and his people like children and given the state of that nation when he took power, they were. I honestly think they were not ready for elections and political party's. That nation could not stop devolving into partisan violence and election results simply were not being respected. So he, as a powerful and highly respected military leader, removed the government and set up an interim government with himself as temporary president.

 

After a very brief rule Mobutu returned the government to civilian hands (why would he do this if he planned to take power for life?). A federalist government was implemented and the scramble for control of the nation and endless factional conflict returned. The result was four more years of political instability ending in yet another conflict between heads of state resulting in deadlock and a another breakdown of government. Mobutu, with the backing of the military, again removed the two politicians and took control of the country becoming president in 1965, this time he outlawed political parties identifying them as the root of the nations problems. He founded the MPR (the Mouvement populaire de la revolution), the only legal political party and all citizens were members. His stated goal was national unity, long term stability, and developing the nations economy.

 

I do believe he still planned to try another election but in the end, he was corrupted but the plain fact is, his nation was for a time better off with him in power as political parties WERE destroying that country, the people had no working government, only prolonged violence, death and misery. Does this make it right? I dont know, he certainly should have tried to give it back to the people again...his early rule was beneficial but as the years went by, it got worse and worse until he became the main problem. Sadly, once he was gone, the country went right back to the way it was before.

 

Mobutu was no Idi Amin (who was probably all bad) and even Bokassa, IMO, had good intentions in the beginning and once in power he built roads, outlawed female circumcision, stopped the communist infiltration of his nation which was allowed in the previous (corrupt) government, and enacted beneficial laws. Yuan Shikai did a lot of good and helped bring China and its military into the modern world, Saddam built infrastructure, allowed women a semblance of equality, and was intent on making Iraq a model of a modern middle eastern secular state. They all went bad of course but many of them were quite admirable in the beginning.

 

While many so called western elected democracies. republics and parliamentary monarchical states were guilty of some of the most atrocious actions, far worse than these so called dictators. What the French did to the parents of Bokassa (public execution for his father driving his mother to kill herself) and the people of the CAR, the people of Africa, SE Asia, Belgium in Africa, Britain in India and many other places...one could even say THESE nations stood as examples of the deepest cruelty in government that may have influenced those who took power once they left.

 

So often its not so black and white...no matter how two dimensional we would like to see things.

 

 

Western colonial enlightenment at its finest.

[Saor Alba]

 

Makes you wish the porter stumbled and dumped his rider - but then again the porter would have been severely punished, so maybe not. At least the photograph exists to testament the perfidy of the situation.