About twenty tears ago I was asked by the editor staff of a local
Rotterdam newspaper to inspect a barrel piano which had been given to
them by the heirs of a local resident.  The editors had put it in the
middle of their room.  When I arrived they told me that they had not
dared to play it because they did not know anything about these
instruments.  They even had not dared to open it!

It was a spring-driven Italian instrument.  The first things I discovered
after opening the piano were a couple of old Dutch coins made of zinc,
obviously used during WW2.  Then, at the bottom, I found a fork and
spoon, also made of zinc(!), with impressions of the German eagle and
a swastika!  Obviously this piano had served part of its life in some
German soldier's canteen!

Hans van Oost, Netherlands