1932: “Stop Crying, Start Buying”

Posted by: Scott    Tags:      Posted date:  November 28, 2010  |  2 Comments


Yesterday was quite busy. Irene and I headed into D.C. for a matinee of Henry VIII at the Folger Theatre, taking off early enough to first visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum for an exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings owned by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. (And leaving time for lunch in Chinatown, too, of course.)

In the evening, we swooped down on Rockville and had dinner with our son, after which we hung around in Maryland poring over family memorabilia. One particularly fascinating item was a coin which we assumed had belonged to my late mother-in-law’s father, John Aloysius Brown. The coin, celebrating the end of the depression, had been produced in 1932 by Stewart-Warner, a company that in its earliest incarnation had produced the speedometers that were used in the Ford Model T.

On one side, we’re exhorted to “Stop Crying, Start Buying,” a sentiment I could imagine our government urging us to embrace today.

So far, that makes this an interesting curiosity, but nothing that verges on OMG or WTF territory. No, for that, you’d have to turn the coin over.

The reverse of the coin, which declares 1932 to be “The End of the Depression,” features an eye (Masonic, I assume) in the center of a shamrock centered over a swastika covering a Star of David—not at all symbols I ever expected to see merged into one.

Does that image get you ready to open up your wallet and start spending? Maybe that’s how a member of the 1932 public was meant to react, but as for me, I’m not so moved.

How about you?





2 Comments for 1932: “Stop Crying, Start Buying”


Christos Mavrogiannis

Back in those days swastika symbol was said to be a “lucky symbol” – one of the reason Nazi’s chose it for their nowadays well known logo is that by mid 20’s it was common to give a swastika as a gift of “good fortune”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century

Gabo 2D

That is not a coin (a coin always bears its value one one of its sides), that’s a token, which is something completely different (used for laundry, car wash, and the like).
Mr Warner, given his surname, easily had German origins. In July 1932’s elections the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the nazi party) became the most important political party in Germany, with a 37,4% votes, and Mr Warner arguably backed it and celebrated its victory, together with the end of the depression, with the special token.
Now, at that time the swastika was already on the nazi party flag. Nothing to say about the Maghen David, the Star of David, we all know it.
About the shamrock (which is actually a four-leaf clover), it’s a symbol almost universally bringing good luck , while that eye belongs not only to masonry, but to the christian and jewish traditions as well, God’s eye that sees everything.
In the end I wouldn’t call this token any obscure prophecy, but rather a wish, according to Mr Warner beliefs.