my german collection

These are all very foreign to me. I have never really seen anything before 1874. Not being a history buff, it gets very confusing with all the different coins, government changes, war, etc...

How large are those Thalers and double Thaler? Silver Dollar size or smaller?

 

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Finally, a double thaler from the kingdom of Prussia - the most powerful of all german states, and of course the one which eventually drove unification under Bismarck in 1873.

 

Oh, don't worry, the very large number of states, duchies, principalities and kingdoms, and other entities which unified to eventually became Germany is certainly confusing to most people. I would say that it is confusing and mostly unknown to most germans nowadays anyway.... The coinage, though, is fascinating and extending over many centuries (as for most European countries), but it is also complex and vast. One could never hope to complete a collection of 'german' coinage, and what most people do is to focus on one state (Prussia, Bavaria for example), or a particular time period (for example medieval coinage, or 19 th century coinage until unification, like I do).

To answer you question: the double thalers of the 19th century are about 40 mm in diameter, and weigh 37 grams (per Krause). So both larger and heavier than a Morgan dollar, for example. People must have had very big pockets to be able to use them in daily commerce.

 

You seem very knowledgable on these. I really like the big coins! 99% of my German coin collection came from my family. I have hundreds of nice examples from 1874 - 1980. They lived in Bremerhaven, West Germany. So that is really the only type I am familiar with. The largest coins being the 10 Mark silver and the 5 Mark Silver, as pictured in my avatar. Which is just an awesome design.

I really need a Krause book I guess. I have no idea on values for any of them, including the dozens of proof and mint sets. Not that value matters to me in this case.

Unfortunately, many of the more modern sets were packaged in pvc plastic (by the mint). So I had to get them out and 'conserve' them. As seen here:




Thanks for sharing everyone, it's always nice to see and hear the history.

 

Awsome coins guys!! :thumb:

 

This is a Prussian commemorative of the 100 year anniversary of the defeat of Napoleon. Sorry about the pic quality, still working on my technique.

 

While I am not particularly fond of such "warfare" coins, the design is quite detailed. The occasion of this issue was not actually the defeat but rather the centenary of the 17 March 1813 proclamation "To My people", see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Mein_Volk About a year later, in 1914, France and the Prussian-dominated Germany were at war again.

Christian

 

gbroke, I am not too familiar with modern german issues, but I do know that 'old' marks, minted between 1950 and 2001 and specially those between 1954 and 1968 are quite scarce and desirable when in very good condition. You may want to check your collection to se if you have any in EF+ or better. I used to pick our the scarcer dates from circulation when it was announced that the german mark would be replaced by Euro coins.

 

Does that include pfennings? Or just the 2 and 5 mark coins?

 

Sweet coins RD, although I gotta say...Looks like Vlad Lenin, & Honest Abe.

 

Now I know I'll end up picking your brain RD, as I have a hindenburg also. I'll have to dig it out, but pretty sure it is different?

 

Guess that, apart from the Hindenburg medal that rdwarrior showed us, there were quite a few more in those years. Now in terms of coins, "only" two commems with his portrait were issued: One in 1929 (3 and 5 RM, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Weimar constitution), and one in 1935 (5 RM issued one year after his death, and two years after the end of the "Weimar Republic"). The portrait used for the latter then appeared on the 2 and 5 RM circulation coins issued 1936-39.

Christian

 

I like Germany coin too. i really like ww2 time germany coins .

 

That's the one magic man.

 

Other coin from my collection

 

my latest addition...

 

Contrary to most coins shown in this topic, this piece is not from the German Empire (Deutsches Reich, 1871-1949) but from the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1949-). Interestingly it does, like a few other euro and cent coins, not have the country name. The obverse shows the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the reverse has the old map (used until 2006). This combination of year and mintmark is not exactly rare as F/Stuttgart is the mint with the biggest production share in this country, and the production of the coins dated 2002 began in August 1998 ...

Christian

 

it fits into my german collection, which is any coin from germany, be that the republic or empire or german state. besdies, most of my op showed coins that weren't part of the german empire.

we don't see it in everyday change here in the usa. lol.

 

Right; that is why I wrote I was referring to the topic as a whole.

Hehe, makes sense - you will probably be familiar with the coin anyway; others however may wonder whether it is a common or rare type. Well, about 432 million of the 2002F piece were made. And it seems we now have a sufficient supply: No new 50 cent coins have been made by any German mint after 2004 - except for sets.

Christian

 

I love the Frankfurt 'city view' Thalers.
They are on my wish list of German coins.
This is the last one, I can't find any pics right now of the earlier designs.