Soviet Union, Silver Poltinnik, Coins With Propaganda

These 90% silver poltinnik coins feature striking imagery in line with the Soviet Union’s complex and widespread practices of propagandism. The obverse side features the USSR state emblem, composed of a hammer and sickle on a globe resting on the rays of the sun, framed by ears of wheat, with a star featured on the top.

The reverse side of the coin displays a blacksmith, hard at work, striking an anvil – an ideal figure of the New Soviet Man. Conceptually, the New Soviet Man was an archetype created to embody all of the desired qualities of a citizen of the Soviet Union. He was expected to be hard working, disciplined, selfless and collectivist, and ethnically Soviet, as opposed to ethnically or culturally a member of any of the states making up the USSR.

The ideology of art as propaganda, with realism being a reference to an ideal, took hold after the Russian Revolution and during Lenin’s rise to power. Lenin saw art as functional, meant to inspire and model socialist ideals. Stalin expanded on this belief, but moved in the direction of art as agitation, meant to deliberately influence and promote the ideas of communism. These coins were minted during Stalin’s rise to power following Lenin’s death in 1924, and highlight the use of the New Man and the use of art as propaganda to re-inforce state approved narratives of the Soviet Identity and legitimizing Stalin as leader of the Communist party.

Each includes a Certificate of Authenticity and is guaranteed genuine.