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Where to Find the Coins of Queen Christina
Ed Aleo’s Bay State Coin Show is on again on March 30 to April 1 at the Radisson Hotel near Park Square at 200 Stuart Street, Boston. Once again Ed will give a free proof set to anyone showing this article at the door. This show had been one of my favorite for decades long before I did the show as a dealer. It’s New England’s oldest coin show and has been going strong since 1964. This is where I found all of my coins associated with the Queen Christina of Sweden story I’m about to tell you.
Garbo, and she was one of these huge personalities known by just one name “Garbo.” She had one of the most beautiful and expressive faces ever to grace the silver screen. It was a fantastic face and had a wonderful impact even if she was just impassively staring off into space, as she did in the final minutes of the 1933 film Queen Christina. At nine, I didn’t know that her lover in the film, John Gilbert, was also the great love of her life and died not many years after the filming was done. Having broken up with Garbo, and with his career on the skids, Gilbert took to binge drinking. In his last days, he was nursed by Garbo’s greatest rival, Marlene Dietrich.
In fact, he was the political and military leader of the Protestant League during the Thirty Years War that gripped Europe in blood from 1618 until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. I felt that it was odd that his strongest alley was a Prince of the Roman Catholic Church, a candidate for pope, and the real ruler of France who persecuted Protestants, Cardinal Richelieu. When it came right down to it, religion had a lot less to do with his great Protestant vs. Catholic War that wiped out a third of Europe’s male population between 1618 and 1648, than did international politics and the pursuit of the balance of power. That is why the French Cardinal, and his successor in his role of first minister when he died in the early 1640’s, Cardinal Mazarin, were such friends to Sweden, northern Germany, and the Protestant League. Gustavas Adolphus, played by Caesar Romero in the film Richelieu, staring George Arliss as the Cardinal, was a hand’s on general and king. In 1631, the great maker of medals, Daedeler, created a huge masterpiece in silver honoring Gustavas Adolphus. It is shown here. The next year, 1632, the warrior king was killed at the Battle of Lutzen. In 1932, Sweden minted a coin honoring the three hundredth anniversary of the great king’s death. It is interesting to note that the United States government has a policy not to commemorate the death anniversaries of anyone on coins or stamps. Anniversaries of births and specific happenings are the only year connected events so honored by special issues and mintages of stamps and coins. This is not so in Europe where death anniversaries are regularly noted numismatically and philatelicaly. Getting back to Christina’s story, she came to the throne at the tender age of six. She assumed rulership in her own right in 1644. Christina was tough minded and unafraid of her subjects among whom she moved with some degree of freedom. Her courage and personality earned her the respect of her people. She was very strong willed and took on her ministers and the leaders of the Swedish Lutheran Church. She found them to be narrow and bigoted. Christina hated religious intolerance. For example, it was against the law to embrace the Catholic faith in Sweden or to be a Jew. Christina had great toleration for both of these faiths. She also was a woman of great learning who spoke all of the European languages. Christina had a long relationship by letter with Descarts and with protestant theologian Matthiaes who wanted all protestants to unite and stop fighting each other. In 1646, Christina began thinking about abdication and becoming a Catholic. Both were unthinkable to her court. She was also determined that Europe’s great religious war, which had raged since 1618, must come to an end. She fostered the Peace of Westphelia, which ended the Thirty Years War in 1648. She was horrified with the stupidity of the fighting and the great loss of life. The war had taken her father from her, and the concept of a war over religion seemed stupid to her, and a love interest had entered her life, General Don Antonio Pimentel de Pradol the envoy of Spain to the royal court of Sweden. By 1652, Christina was attempting to bring France and Spain together in peace. She also backed the Hapsburg King of Hungary as the new Holy Roman Emperor with success. She was at the top of her game. She was her father’s daughter, and she wanted out. In 1654 at the age of twenty-eight, Christina abdicated her throne in favor of her cousin Charles Gustav Vasa. Over the last year and a half before that, she had sent most of her personal wealth out of the country. she had been planning this move for a long time. She moved to Rome where she embraced the Catholic religion. Christina moved about Europe a great deal during the following decades. She visited Sweden several times, once to attempt to get Swedish backing for making herself queen of Catholic Poland. She studied philosophy with Françoise Malaval and astronomy with Lubenitz. Christina also aspired for a time to be Queen of Naples, and was kicked out of the Vatican by Pope Alexander VII. Then she was invited back by his successor and her friend, Pope Clement IX. Clement gave Christina a pension to help her out with her finances. Christina, in turn, raised a few eyebrows when she moved two professional astronomers into her household and published a letter on the wonders of religious tolerance and a manifesto blasting anti-semitism in favor of defending Rome’s Jewish population. She continued as patroness of the arts by supporting Bernini the sculptor, who was suffering a lot of under criticism. She also commissioned a cantata and paid for its performance at the coronation of her friend James II of England in 1685 where she was a favorite guest. She even commissioned special music for the coronation as her personal gift to James. Christina spent some time living in Hamburg, again where she followed more personal intellectual development, and visited France then Rome. In 1689, this amazing woman, peacemaker and intellectual who embraced universal toleration died at the age of sixty-three. Her friend Pope Clement died the same year. Her remarkable life is merely hinted at here in the coins and medals of her and her father. She was a most amazing woman and queen. All of the items shown here were purchased by me at Ed Aleo’s Boston Boy State Show over the last 35 years. I hope to see you there. If you want to catch up with me in late March and early April, I’ll be at the following shows. On Sunday, March 25, I’ll be at Ernie Botte’s Westford Coin Show at the Westford Regency Inn in Westford, Mass. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Westford Regency Inn is located on Rt. 110 right off Exit 32 from Rt. 495. On May 30 and May 31, I’ll be at Ed Aleo’s Bay State Coin Show at the Radisson Hotel which is located at Park Square, 200 Stuart Street, Boston. Show hours are March 30, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., March 31, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., April 1, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Remember to bring this edition of the Journal of Antiques and Collectibles; show it at the door and get your free U.S. proof set. On April 1, I’ll not be in Boston. I shall be at the 34th Annual Mansfield numismatic Society Show in Willimantic, Connecticut. This year’s location will once again be at the Prospect School Gymnasium on 233 Prospect Street, at the corner of High St. in Willimantic, Connecticut. This is a great annual show under the direction of Show Chairmen John Ferreri. It’s a must see show. On April 8, I’ll be back at Auburn, Massachusetts at Ernie Botte’s Auburn Coin Show at the Elk’s Hall next to the Hampton Inn on Rt. 12 in Auburn. Just exit the Massachusetts Turnpike at Exit 10 and proceed onto Rt. 12. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On April 22, I’ll be back in Westford. Don’t forget to bring this copy of the Journal of Antiques and Collectibles to Bay State to get your free proof set at the Boston Bay State Show. James C. Johnston Jr. was born in the historic Oliver Pond House in Franklin, MA where he has lived for 63 years. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in history and is the author of several books. He has also written more than 2,000 articles and monographs in The Numismatist, Linn’s Stamp News, The Milford Daily News, and many other publications. Johnston was a teacher in the Franklin system for 34 years and has been associated with Johnston Antiques since 1962. He is a well- known appraiser of antiques, books, fine arts, stamps, and coins. He is a founding member of the Massachusetts Suburban Antique Dealers Association, a member of the American Numismatic Association,The Collector’s Club of New York, and the American Philatelic Society. He has also been President of the Franklin Historical Society since 1985. Johnston is also a well known lecturer whose topics cover a wide range of social history, antiques, coins, stamps, and the fine arts as well as politics and political and military history. |
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