Судбина сребра Ужичке републике
Destiny of Silver from the Republic of Užice

Summary/Abstract: During the liberation of Užice in 1941, partisans confiscated large amounts of money. Silver coins were a significant part of it. The exact quantity is not known, while the estimates go up to 80,000,000 dinars, of which silver coins were worth 12,000,000 dinars. One gold coin (3.23 grams) was sold on the Belgrade “black market“ for about 1,400 dinars at that time one. After the collapse of the uprising in Serbia, the Partisans withdrew with paper and silver money. However, some of the silver was buried on several locations on the mountain of Zlatibor, because of its weight. In the course of the war, that money was earthed up, relocated and permanently used until the mid-1943. Some coins were taken by peasants, some confiscated by Germans and Chetniks, while the information on some locations have been permanently lost after the death of partisans who were in charge of it. Although the facts about transport, hiding, stealing and searching for silver, represent a true war reality filled with dramatic and cruel events, during the course of time, they became a part of traditional stories about “lost treasure“ in the memory of the contemporaries. The discourse of ascetics and martyrs that showed the Partisan movement as dominant, but besides the mainstrem of the narrative, many episodes and scenes revealed suspended human desire for material and monetary wealth.

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