Belgium trolls France with bonkers new commemorative coin Belgium has taken international trolling to the next level by minting a €2.50 coin to celebrate the Battle of Waterloo. France had objected to the plan to mint a €2 coin to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat and Belgium duly scrapped 180,000 coins. France said the battle “has a particular resonance in the …
This post has been deleted by its author
"(and why would you use it if it cost you 6Euro and it's only worth 2.5Euro)"
I take it you've never seen Brewster's Millions (R.I.P. Richard Pryor and John Candy).
It is also wrong. The coins can NOT be used to buy anything, even in Belgium. They are a collectors item, no more, no less.
If you dig a bit deeper there's a whole scene of coin collectors for these kind of things. The idea being that they are pretty rare and some day might be worth more. Or they like collecting them more than they like stamps? Who knows ;)
This post has been deleted by its author
Someone pulled those 20p coins out of a proof set and spent them. Some people working the register are suspicious of anything they don't recognize (like people in the US who refuse a $2 bill even though they are legal tender, since they are rarely used) and some will take anything if it is looks legit - and after all, they are only 20p, and who would counterfeit a 20p coin?
I mean, YOU got them as change at some point and didn't refuse them, right? If someone gave you a washer in change instead of a penny, and you decided to accept it because "hey I need a washer exactly that size, this will save me a trip to the hardware store" would that mean that people who say a washer isn't legal tender are wrong?
It can be used anywhere. However, due to the fact that it isn't legal tender, it can be refused when presented to settle a debt.
Same with Scottish and Northern Ireland pound sterling notes - can be accepted as payment for a debt anywhere in the UK, but as it's not legal tender it can be refused.
Credit cards, debit cards, cheques and other non-cash methods of payment aren't strictly speaking legal tender (i.e. it's totally legal for the person who is owed the money to refuse it)
Most Bank of England notes aren't legal tender in Scotland either, because the definition of it is so tight.
This post has been deleted by its author
When I visited the 'Panorama' near the battlefield, it left me with the impression the French had won. The true battlefield is no longer there in memoriam, as the French carefully scooped up all the topsoil to make the monument. Did we only get to keep our 'Waterloo' station because we added a fraction for Eurostar?
Some years back, some particularly publicity-desperate petty French politician complained loudly about the Eurostar terminus being at a place named after Waterloo.
The English reaction, which I saw from several independent sources, was "Certainly squire. No problem. We'll get the name changed right away. Agincourt Station it is."
It almost makes me want to use the Euro so we could employ their coin here.
Well this year we're rubbing the German's noses in it again with new £2 coins celebrating the first world war and a 50p coin for the Battle of Britain. Sadly it looks like the Royal Mint have missed the opportunity to bait the French with a 600 year anniversary Agincourt pound coin.
Well this year we're rubbing the German's noses in it again with new £2 coins celebrating the first world war and a 50p coin for the Battle of Britain.
Just the one German? And he's got more than one nose? (Check your punctuation.)
Actually, probably not even one. The ones I've met - Germans that is, not noses - seem pretty indifferent. We're the ones who seem to have retained the chip on the shoulder.
"the point is to annoy the French"
Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was the only thing they could come up with to put on a coin. Let's face it, the list of famous Belgians probably has a single entry, and that's Poirot, so after you've put him on one coin, you're a bit stuck. And even then, that's only one side of the coin sorted.
" Reply Icon
@Ledswinger, Ah yes... people always mistake Jaques Brel for a Frenchman ;-)"
Ahhh, but do not forget Plastique Bertrand, Jean Claude Van Damme et. al.
In fact Belgian punches above its weight for well known people given its size.
One of my French Army songs used to have the following in it:
"Pour les Belges y en a plus. Ce sont des tireurs au cul"
So perhaps the French deserve all they get.
"Don't know any famous Belgians outside of Poirot? Are you mad?"
No, I am not mad, but I seem to be single-handedly waving the banner of secretly self-deprecating British pretend-xenophobia, fighting off the barbarians who could evidently sit through Fawlty Towers: The Germans without cracking a smile (and who'd probably conclude that the humour was at the expense of the Teutons).
Fawlty Towers seems quite popular in Belgium and I even had some German friends who liked it... as an aside.
I think Belgium also holds the record for the most parliaments per capita and perhaps per square kilometer too :-)
It may also have the record for the longest period without a government in a Western country.
These last two are just speculation on my part...
"Gerardus Mercator, Leo Baekeland, Georges Lemaître , Jacky Ickx, Eddy Merckx, Justine Henin"
Famous?! I have never heard of any of those before now...
Mercator -- map maker
Baekeland -- plastics
Lemaître -- the Big Bang Theory
Ickx -- race-car driver
Merckx -- no clue
Henin -- tennis player.
If you've really never heard of Mercator, you paid no attention in geography class. Really. And if you've really never heard of Lemaître, you probably didn't pay much attention in physics class, either.
"In fact Belgian punches above its weight for well known people given its size."
Doesn't every country in the world (of any size) claim that, with the sole exception of Wales? I suppose the Belgians can take comfort that at least they weren't born Welsh.
In fact, maybe there's a way forward for Belgian odd-denomination coins: Countries we Belgies are glad we're not.
To be fair we celebrate Dunkirk as if it was a victory when in fact it was our troops running away as fast as they could.
Thatr's not intended as a slur on their bravery, it was the right thing to do it's just that we seem to act as if it was some great victory.
"To be fair we celebrate Dunkirk as if it was a victory"
We were fortunate that at the time Hitler still seems to have thought there was a possibility of making peace with Britain. German soldiers have said after the war that they were reluctant to shoot.
But we're British - celebrating massive cock-ups is what we do, it's part of the national culture of self-deprecation.
The British were incredibly lucky that Hitler ordered Guderian twice to stop his advance, thing were going so well that Hitler thought it had to be a trap.
He had to order it twice because the first time Guderian asked for permission to send reconnaissance patrols and then proceeded to send all his troops to "reconnaissance".
"He had to order it twice because the first time Guderian asked for permission to send reconnaissance patrols and then proceeded to send all his troops to "reconnaissance"."
Guderian's problem was that he just wanted to win the war, whereas Hitler wanted to kill anybody he disapproved of in the largest possible numbers, allow his toadies to loot the world, and demonstrate that he was the greatest military geenius of the 20th century. It's slightly amusing that Hitler kept complaining about his generals, because in the end he became their biggest obstacle to doing the job properly.
To be fair we celebrate Dunkirk as if it was a victory
Indeed.
This is besides the fact of UK history book carefully erased the fact that the Dunkirk evacuation was possible only because one acting Brigadier General named de Gaulle counterattack at Abbeville. So the Germans could not advance on Dunkirk without opening their flanks and inviting themselves into a nice pocket.
I am going to leave the fact that allies (including British 1st armoured division) actually _WON_ the battle of Abbevile, however, instead of using their first win in WW2 (by breaking out of the Dunkirk pocket and counterattacking) the British retreated across the channel.
The Dunkirk "great military achievement" should share the same "wall of shame" with the whole home fleet chasing one pocket battleship (and losing a capital ship in the process), allowing the channel run and withdrawing a whole fleet group including multiple heavy cruisers, ship of the line and an aircraft carrier and running away as fast as their engines can deliver after deciphering an Enigma order for the other pocket battleship to attack the PQ17.
"the whole home fleet chasing one pocket battleship (and losing a capital ship in the process"
As I recall, the Hipper-class cruisers (AKA "pocket battleships") never sank a capital ship, although I suspect you're referring to the Bismarck and Hood, a battle in which both navies lost their flagships. As with the Battle of Jutland, the outcome of the Bismarck encounter was a clear strategic win for the Royal Navy, even though tactically the best you could say was that it was a draw.
Ignoring the U-boats, the performance of the Kriegsmarine was dismal in WW2, despite well trained sailors and far better equipment than the Royal Navy had.
The HIPPER cruisers were excellent designs (which didn't so much break the relevant naval treaties as crush them...) but weren't 'pocket battleships'. Those were DEUTSCHLAND/LUTZOW, SCHEER, and GRAF SPEE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschland-class_cruiser
"The HIPPER cruisers were excellent designs (which didn't so much break the relevant naval treaties as crush them...) but weren't 'pocket battleships'. "
Correction accepted, but the Deutschland class cruisers didn't sink any Allied capital ships either.
"The Dunkirk "great military achievement" should share the same "wall of shame" with the whole home fleet chasing one pocket battleship (and losing a capital ship in the process), allowing the channel run and withdrawing a whole fleet group including multiple heavy cruisers, ship of the line and an aircraft carrier and running away as fast as their engines can deliver after deciphering an Enigma order for the other pocket battleship to attack the PQ17."
BISMARCK was most definitely not a 'pocket battleship'. It was the largest and most powerful superdreadnought battleship afloat at the time, superior to all Royal Navy dreadnoughts ever built and to every American dreadnought prior to the WASHINGTONs and to the Japanese dreadnoughts prior to the YAMATOs. However, in the words of Joe Stalin, quantity has a quality all its own, so BISMARCK was gang-banged after being crippled by air attack. TIRPITZ was a (slightly) improved BISMARCK and was sunk by air attack. The 'pocket battleships' were the DEUTSCHLAND/LUTZOW class panzerschiffs, which were really more like large armored cruisers. (DEUTSCHLAND, the lead ship in the class, was renamed LUTZOW to avoid the propaganda hit should it get sunk.)
As for PQ-17, if TIRPITZ had gotten loose it would have wiped out the entire escort. Yes, it was that much superior to anything available.
As for PQ-17, if TIRPITZ had gotten loose it would have wiped out the entire escort. Yes, it was that much superior to anything available.
Cough, cough:
0. Immediate escort: 6 destroyers
1. Close escort: Cruisers HMS London, HMS Norfolk, USS Wichita, USS Tuscalusa and four destroyers
2. Second level escort: Aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, Battleship HMS Duke of York, cruisers HMS Cumberland and HMS Nigeria, Battleship USS Washington, and nine destroyers
Grand total: aircraft carrier, 2 Battleships, 6 cruisers, 19 destroyers with an additional home fleet task force within 300 nautical miles to reinforce if need be.
Against one battleship Tirpitz, one heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer with destroyer escort ~ 8 of them at the time.
Cough, cough, cough.
Yeah, I know, I am coughing just like my mom's adoptive father at the mere mentioning of Lord Dudley and the other "ranks" in the British fleet. Hint - the old man fought the war as a submariner from day one till the 9 of may and in 1942 he was a senior officer on the K21. I tend to believe him that Tirpitz turned back to port for a "technical" reason as a result of meeting them not just because the convoy spread out.
"2. Second level escort: Aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, Battleship HMS Duke of York, cruisers HMS Cumberland and HMS Nigeria, Battleship USS Washington, and nine destroyers"
I'd forgotten about WASHINGTON being available. TIRPITZ, SCHEER, and eight destroyers could have handled the close and immediate escorts before the 2nd-level escort got close. That would leave the 2nd-level escort. Get past them, and by the time that the distant escort got in range, there wouldn't have been much left of the convoy, and TIRPITZ & Co would have been hauling ass for Norway at best speed, calling up U-boats and aircraft as they went... except that I forgot about WASHINGTON. WASHINGTON and DUKE OF YORK together would have been enough to see TIRPITZ off. DUKE OF YORK on its lonesome... say 'bye-bye'. I just looked up the RN order of battle. My bad.
"To be fair we celebrate Dunkirk as if it was a victory when in fact it was our troops running away as fast as they could. That's not intended as a slur on their bravery, it was the right thing to do it's just that we seem to act as if it was some great victory."
As Churchill said at the time, "We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory".
(Churchill if I recall did want to sent the whole of the RAF to France at the start of the war but his war chiefs refused, wisely.)
Dunkirk wasn't a victory, but it was a miracle worth celebrating; Britain managing to get the troops out alive. And that helped with the prosecution of the war too, since they lived to fight another day. Turning a rout into a retreat is a positive, not a negative.
This post has been deleted by its author
The £18 5p one first. That laid the foundations for 1815. That, and the rather significant events of 1812.
Given our awkward relationships with Russia, they've rescued us by German overreach three times since 1800. Perhaps we should issue a commemorative 1815 gold ruble.
This post has been deleted by its author
I would like to add the comment that barely a few weeks after the French climbed on their high chevaux and protested about our coin, they starded off in ze general direction of the US in a replica sailboat to commemorate their involvement in fighting the plucky Americans wanting independence.
And, of course, getting their derrieres duly kicked as they always do.
<snip>
"And, of course, getting their derrieres duly kicked as they always do."
Actually you could not be more wrong. They have a military history of winning battles going back thousands of years and even eclipsing the English.
Now if you were to state the above about the Americans then I would be in agreement.
I would like to add the comment that barely a few weeks after the French climbed on their high chevaux and protested about our coin, they starded off in ze general direction of the US in a replica sailboat to commemorate their involvement in fighting the plucky Americans wanting independence.And, of course, getting their derrieres duly kicked as they always do.
The French helped the Americans gain independence you silly git.
Your git comment aside, what they actually did was declare war on the English (with the help of the Dutch and the Spanish, of course) . They did it because the wanted revenge for getting the rear of their anatomy badly battered in the seven year war. They ended up with a giant financial hangover, which indirectly caused the French revolution, git wise. And, of course, we're not mentioning the French losses that ran into the thousends. A cause for celebration by the French even today, I'm sure.
Of course Franklin was already talking to the English behind the French's back, and so they got very little if aything out of the peace settlement.
But, as you correctly remarked, the word 'with'as in 'with the Americans' is sadly missing from my writings.
"otherwise they'll send a raiding party to rescue Emperor Napolleon III who lies burried in Hampshire and still refuse to return a couple of Henry's who are entombed in France."
That's a win-win. And if we could get them (or, perhaps, the Germans) to remove the squatters currently infesting a certain large government-owned building in London SW1A 1AA, why that would be an even bigger win-win. I'm not overly fond of Ollie Cromwell or Maxie Robespierre, but they did have a way of dealing with such annoyances.
Just bought one for my bro' as he is into all of this, what a web site - would not work in SeaMonkey, had to blow the cobwebs off IE. Complained about the +44 I put in my tel. number and sneakily changed back to the default country (or land as it charmingly put it) of Afganistan - only noticed when it billed me €6 + €2 delivery to my UK address in Afganistan. So went back and corrected the address and now delivery to the UK is €5.50!!! So do Belgium have a special deal with Afganypost?
This post has been deleted by its author
Le Point used to do this by simply referring to the FN as the "Partie Lepéniste". Nowadays UKIP and the FN are more or less on the same side, so it might not have the desired effect. Napoleon, after all, just tried to create an earlier version of the EU.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
