OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE ONTARIO MUMlSMATlC ASSOCIATION FOUNDED 19#¶ ISSN 0048- 181 5 1985-1987 O.N.A. OFFICERS Past Presidents STELLA HODGE President ROY HOLLINGSHEAD First Vice-President KEN. WILMOT Second Vice- President GARY OBLIN SKY Secretary THOMAS MASTERS Treasurer and Membership BRUCE H. RASZMANN Mailing Address Box 33, Waterloo, Ont. N2J 326 Area DIRECTORS la Tom. Kosztaluk Ib Stella Hodge DL 2 Ckas. Laister 3 Robt. Voaden 4 Rcbt. Fletcher 5 Tom. Kennedy 6 Wes. Ham 7 Wally Ciona 8 Ed. Keetch 9 Len. Fletcher 10 R. Albert HEAD JUDGE Elmer Workman R.R. #2 Cannington, Ontario, LOE 1EO Editor Brucr R. watt Numismatic Association. The publication can be obtained with 1151 Yortl~ridgest., membership in one of the following categories: Re ular O*ha-, Ontario, LIC jpj MembershipfO.00 annually. Husband and Wife (one journal)d$OO annually. Junior (up to 18) $3.00 annually. Club embership $10.00 Librarian annually. Life Memberships available for $&I after 3 years of Thomas Masters regular membership. 823 Van Street, Remittances payable to the Ontario Numlsmatlc Association, P.O. London, Ontario N5Z 1MB Box 33, Waterloo, Ontario. N2J 326. Authorized second class mall by the Post Office Department, Ottawa. and for payment of postage in cash. .At-'' r. &T.B Yulk <rihc. .Vii b.*:o :r;l; * E+..'.*r* ... 4. of Alexander's generals. According to Arrianos, after a peril- the cases of military leaders, to let the ous crossing of a stretch of desert dur- troops know who was meeting the pay- ing which Alexander and his party were By George M. Baude roll. saved by a few timely "miracles," they World War I was the first war in arrived at an oasis surrounding a shrine ropaganda." which modern propaganda, with its to Ammon; here Alexander was We say the word with a invidious connotation, was consciously informed by the priests that he was the P sneering tone. We dismiss implemented state policy, exploited as a son of the god. Shortly afterward, the the subject preemptorily; we easily rec- potent and effective rneans of influenc- news was announced by the Oracle of ognize an attempt to persuade us to ing public opinion. Though propaganda Apollo in Asia Minor; Arrianos wrote believe something our better judgement offices often masqueraded under such that at this time Alexander took to causes us to reject. But in reality, propa- innocuous names as The Ministry of wearing the two ram horns characteris- ganda has many purposes, and not all Education or The State Information tic of his "father." They were worn are either abominable or readily recog- Service, the war prompted a rise of attached to a fillet around his head, so nimble. national propaganda machines as well they appeared to be growing from just The word "propaganda" originally as unofficial political and economic above his ears. This is not really conclu- meant an act of spreading the faith; it groups formed to influence public sive evidence, but since Alexander faced applied specifically to the College of views. strong opposition at home, isn't it con- Propaganda founded by Pope Urban It would be misleading to say that ceivable that he would resort to this VIII (1613-1644) to prepare priests for World War I was the first time propa- subterfuge to solidify his position? foreign assignments. It carried none of ganda was used with the deliberate Many Roman coins bear inscriptions its implications of deceit and deception, intention of deception. That might be or allegorical scenes meant to impress and did not until this century. impossible to trace, but for our purpose by commemorating an event or exalting Propaganda serves many purposes: it a good starting point is the fourth cen- a personage. The Roman general Mark informs and misinforms, brings good tury B.C. Antony (83-30 B.C.), while command- news, words of warning, words of hope ing forces in the western Mediterranean and encouragement, persuasion, as a member of the second Triumvirate, threats, and a variety of other intents. here a re c o i n s o f A 1 e x - struck a series of denarii bearing a pic- Propaganda, as we define the word, aander the Great (356-323 B.C.) ture of a galley. The galley suggested combines all these elements and then which bear a portrait con- that ultimate power rested upon sea disseminates them by the printing sidered by some to be Hercules but power, a subtle stroking of the naval press, radio and television - and by thought by others to be Alexander him- forces. His name is also featured pro- perhaps the oldest method of all. That self. The coin shows a young man with a minently on the coin, a reminder to will be the subject of this study. ram's horn curling against his head. those who served under him that Almost from the time mankind began Could this mean that Alexander was Antony saw to it that they were paid. using the specific bits of metal of estab- casting himself as the son of Ammon, The reverse carries a legionary designa- lished weight and value we call coins, the ram-headed Egyptian god known as tion (Leg 1, 11, 111, and so forth) and a these artifacts have been used to recog- Zeus to the Greeks? The evidence is representation of the legion's standards. nize the accomplishments of the state or found in an account by Arrianos, a sec- This recognized the land forces as well, ruler, to venerate or invoke the favor and-century writer who researched the for the standards were objects of great of the dieties and often, especially in records of Ptolomy and Aristobulus, two pride to the army, inspiring a deep feel- . world coin news ing of esprit de corps. In A.D. 9, when crime by making it plain that the inten- Joyful Pride We Contemplate This the Germanic hordes under Arminius tion to commit it was deliberately Latest Deed of Our Navy" was the way annihilated three legions commanded formed and the crime itself planned the Kolnishe Volkszeitung expreased by Publius Quintillius Varus, the loss of before the ship sailed." (The italics it.They said the victory was greeted the legionary standards was mourned have been added to highlight a point with shouts of delight in every quarter almost as much as the destruction of the to be examined later.) of the German Empire; school children legions themselves, and great shame was The ship sailed, and despite the were granted a holiday. This reaction is cast upon the name of Varus that "threats" the passenger list was filled to be expected in a nation at war, where, extended even to distant kin. with non-combatants - men, women like Pearl Harbor in 1941, a heinous and children, many of them American. atrocity to one side is regarded as a At 2:30 p.m., off the coast of Ireland, a noble vidory by the other. torpedo struck between the third and But there was a strange twist to the et us jump almost 2,000 fourth funnels, a second and third tor- Lusitania case that cast the entire mat- years in our examination pedo may have followed, and the great ter in a different hue. The prominent L of propaganda. It has been ship went down. German medalist Karl Goetz produced noted that theword was not alwaye so The British press presented the trag- a medal to commemorate the event. The odious. The distaste and distrust it gen- edy in the most emotional phrases they British Intelligence Service learned erates may have had ita origin in the could summon: about it before their German counter- days just prior to America's entry into "It is impossible to draw a pen pic- part, and when they revealed it in the the first World War. The outbreak of ture of the heart-rending scenes that press, the Kolnishe Volkszeitung indig- hostilities in August 1914 was followed followed. Men, women, and children nantly denied that German artiste by intense propaganda competition caught like rats in a trap were vainly would create so gruesome a souvenir. between the Allies and the Central fighting for their lives ... Still the The German Presa Bureau had to admit Powers - and one brilliant British-con- Hunnish pirates had performed their later that such a medal had been pri- ceived coup that we must consider. task, proving to the civilized world vately executed; Goetz had made 44 Friday, May 7, 1915, the Cunard liner that the whole gamut of barbarism copies that he distributed to friends. He Lusitania was torpedoed off the Irish had not been exhausted in the inter- had intended it to be a satirical com- coast by a German submarine, the U-20, est of German Kultur. The Belgian ment on the German government's con- and sunk 18 minutes later with a loas of atrocities ... all these dwarfed to tention that the Lusitania carried con- 1,201 lives. The vessel had not been insignificance in the face of the fou- traband. The British obtained one of requisitioned for government war ser- lest act of wilful murder ever com- the medals and featured this descrip- vice, but kept its regular place in the mitted on the high seas. The crime tion in the newspapers: Cunard Line sailings. The ship left will forever remain a blot on the his- "On the obverse, under the legend 'No Liverpool in April 1915, arrived in New tory of a civilized(?) nation..." Contraband' (Keine Bannware) York safely, and departed on its final there is a representation of the Lusi- voyage May 1.