I have a 1938A 5 Rhichspfennig coin. I think the last letter is an "s" in the word Deutsches (of Deutsches Reich) but it looks more like a symbol. Here is a really crude drawing. http://s1270.beta.photobucket.com/user/hermit_the_surly/media/CAM00040.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 Is this a letter? Maybe the possessive case?
There are some differences between the English and German alphabets, but the only distinctly different character is ß , which is not what you drew.
Thanks. I didn't see it in the link. It's also on reverse in ReichsPfennig so I don't think it's a failed die problem.
Does the second "s" in "Deutsches" look like the "s" in "Reichspfennig"? If so, that's the way it's supposed to look. What I don't know, is why the first "s" in "Deutsches" doesn't look like the other 2, but I've seen the taller "s" in other German text. I'll ask my wife when I get home. (and she'll probably roll her eyes and say something about "stupid coins") :too-funny: Snatched this from Google Images:
With those "Fraktur" letters you had two different "s" characters, the long s and the round s. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Fraktur_letter_S.png (On the left is an uppercase S.) But it seems that in this case it is a quite ornate version of the round s. Christian
In such Fraktur fonts, the "long s" was used at the beginning of, or in, a syllable, while the "round s" was at the end of a syllable. Reichs-pfen-nig > round s. Deut-sches > long s at the beginning, round s at the end. While the long s is not really used in Germany any more (if Fraktur is used at all, it is supposed to convey "old" or "traditional" these days), we do use one remnant even in fonts like whatever you see here - the ß which is a combination of the long s and the round s. Don't know if this shows up fine or not ... ſ+s = ß. Christian
Thank you and everyone else too. The first s looks exactly like the one in the link. The second is pretty close. The difference may just be wear distortion. It's probably only FINE or VF. I kind a like German coins. There's more than enough to type collect them. Now I have some interesting notes to go with this. Thanks again!
The Lebensreform (life reform) movement seemed to be very much about getting back to the old and traditional ways. I wonder if it had anything to do with old style lettering? http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensreform
Fraktur was, quite simply, the most commonly used script in the German speaking countries for roughly 400 to 500 years. As the word indicates, what is characteristic about it (Fraktur - fracture - something is broken) is the "breaking" of lines that, in Antiqua scripts, would be round. See here http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Boegenunterschiede.png, particularly the first and last examples. In the late 19th century that usage began to change. Partly because, while German text would often be in Fraktur, Latin or other parts would be in Antiqua, even in the same book. There may have been aesthetic reasons too, don't know. However, some disliked the move towards more and more Antiqua. The nazis were, in the first years, Fraktur supporters and promoters so to say. That is also why, on coins from those years, you see Fraktur characters (which before had been rarely used on coins). Then, in WW2, the regime suddenly declared Fraktur to be of "Jewish" origin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiqua–Fraktur_dispute Huh? This decision (in 1941) was apparently made because in the occupied countries/territories hardly anybody could read Fraktur, and also because even Hitler himself considered Fraktur to be an obstacle on the way of making German "more relevant" in the world ... The font used on the nazi coins was not changed (not even during the allied post-war occupation 1945-49), probably due to the cost involved. But those among you who collect stamps (I don't) may have noticed that on newly issued Nazi Germany stamps (since 1941/42 or so) that did begin to change. Same thing with books, newspapers, etc. And as I mentioned before, today Fraktur is mostly used when you want to emphasize that something is old and/or traditional. Kinda like a sign that says "Ye Olde Shoppe" in Gothic characters. Or look at the top of quite a few newspaper front pages. Christian
