“Trench Art” is a term that refers to decorative pieces created by soldiers during war, often by carving words and images into coins. While it is generally difficult to verify as being authentic, the trench art coins displayed at the museum went down with the SS Republic just after the Civil War, making it easy to determine exactly when they were created. Prior to the recovery of the SS Republic, historians believed that trench art on coins began in WWI, so finding coins that were decorated by soldiers during the Civil War was an unexpected surprise.
