Newest German Medal Acquistion

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by princeofwaldo, Oct 13, 2017.

  1. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    Struck in Nürnberg depicting Graf von Zeppelin on the obverse, and a complex reverse image of World War I era military hardware. The Zeppelin in the foreground must be the LZ-6 based on the shape of the rudder and the pencil tip shape of the bow. It wasn't a military Zeppelin, -was actually the first Zeppelin constructed for Delag, the German Zeppelin passenger service. Launched in August of 1909, it had a very bad day in Oos, Baden-Baden a year later when it exploded in its hangar. It was the first Zeppelin to employ wireless radio communication. Not sure on the cruiser, still need to do a little research on it. The medal itself is pretty rare, the finer of only two seen at PCGS and far more elusive than the medals struck in the 1920s for the LZ-127. From Heritage's Long Beach sale in September. Dscn8233+.jpg Dscn8235+.jpg
     
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  3. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    'DEUTSCHE FLOTTEN DEUTSCHES SCHWERT-BESCHÜTZEN UNSERN HEIMATHERD 1914-15' (The German fleet, the German sword protect our hearth and home. 1914-15)

    LZ-6
    Zeppelin15gross.jpg
     
  4. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Awesome. Great frosty cameo (DCAM?) contrast.

    What's the PCGS grade? Did they give it a SPxx grade, or PRxx?

    That floating hangar in the photograph is a trip. I never knew those existed.
     
    princeofwaldo likes this.
  5. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    I believe that shot is from out on Lake Constance (known as Bodensee in German), and adjacent to Friedrichshafen, the German city in southwest Bavaria where most of the Zeppelins were constructed. If you enjoy Zeppelin history, there is a fabulous Zeppelin museum there in Friedrichshafen, can spend at least a whole day there and not see it all. As for the medal, PCGS PR66-DCAM and finest by 2 points.
     
    Theodosius likes this.
  6. Zohar444

    Zohar444 Member

  7. sakata

    sakata Devil's Advocate

    How do you find population numbers for medals? I could see no way to do so on their website?
     
  8. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    https://www.pcgs.com/pop/pcgsnolookup.aspx?s=518478&g=66

    Was mistaken, actually finest by 3 points! Need to enter the serial number, then click on the population number (in this case the "1") and it will take you to the population page for the specific coin or medal number. Keep in mind, CoinFacts does not support world coins (or medals) and so even though you may have the coin number, PCGS won't display the population unless you go the "verification" page and enter the slab serial number first. The Zetzmann-2114 number is from the Zetzmann catalog (also on the slab label) which unfortunately is not a Zeppelin medal catalog but rather a catalog listing German World War I medals (hence, medals struck for the LZ-127 don't have a Zetzmann number) .
     
  9. chrisild

    chrisild Coin Collector

    Kind of funny that the designer or the engraver of that Lauer medal did not know how to spell, hehe. Just as it says "deutsche" in the first line below the zeppelins and ships scene, it should say "deutsches" and not "deutches" in the second line ...

    Christian
     
  10. sakata

    sakata Devil's Advocate

    That is what I figured - no way to look up medal populations in general, which is what I wanted to do.
     
  11. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    Unfortunately, no. However, if you can find the medal (in a PCGS holder) in the archive section of Heritage, you can then look it up using the same verification method. Frustrating that world coins on PCGS get treated like unwanted step-children when it comes to population reports. Sure, it's possible to look them up using the country, then doing a Control-F and entering something specific to the issue you are interested in to narrow it down. But it's both time consuming and frustrating when the coin is in your hand, you have the coin number, and Coinfacts already open in a browser. Should be able to just enter the coin number and bingo, you're there just like US issues.

    I'm also of the opinion that the grading services, NGC and PCGS both, could do far more business grading medals if they were a little more open to collector input on attribution. This is a rare medal struck in Paris at Studio Pradier around 1830 while Anton Bovy was an apprentice to James Pradier. Something like 20 of them in private hands, very rare. Bovy went on to become a prolific die sinker and designed most of the Swiss shooting medals of the 19th century. However, the medal isn't Swiss, it's French. I submitted it to NGC for grading, along with attribution that was provided by Hedley Betts, arguably the greatest authority on world medals that has ever lived, and NGC returned it in a body bag labeled "Swiss Medal, Ineligible Type". Like an idiot, I didn't make a copy of the attribution information I sent them, fully expecting it to be on the NGC holder, and of course NGC didn't return the document with the medal.

    IMG_0940+.jpg
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2017
  12. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    I don't know a lick of German, but I'm wondering if it has something to do with "fleet" being plural and "sword" being singular.
     
  13. chrisild

    chrisild Coin Collector

    You are right about the singular/plural, but I was referring to the missing S in the middle of the word. ;) German happens to be my primary language, and it should say "deutsches". Sometimes such errors occur when coins or medals are made abroad, but in this case the manufacturer (in Germany) just did not pay attention, I guess ...

    Christian
     
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