So, I am trying to understand this coin a bit. Based on what I have read, the coin was a circulation issue with a mintage of about 50 million. The composition was 90% copper, 10% nickel. But, there were also about 12,000 minted in a 25% nickel 75% copper composition which are far rarer. I am trying to figure out how to tell these coins apart. I cannot find a weight listing anywhere online for the 25% nickel coin and I have yet to find any proof in photos of a color difference. Sometimes the coins appear reddish tinted but from what I can tell they are often nickel colored as well. So, what is the easiest way to tell the rarer 25% nickel version from the 10% example?
Maybe photos are tricky, but in hand they look distinctly different. KM 22.1 is like a dark tan/beige color and 22.1a is gray. Weight is the same.
But how can one tell the color difference if they are circulated? I was thinking along the line of specific gravity. Have never done one before so I cannot tell how easy it is to work out the calculation...
Your eyes can do the job. The regular version (mintage about 50 million, about 40 million melted down later) has a reddish appearance, like a plain copper coin. The CuNi variety - rare indeed, but had legal tender status - looks like any copper-nickel coin, e.g. the 1 and 2 DM coins from the Federal Republic. Side note: This 5 M coin was a circulating commem indeed. In 1971 the GDR issued another one, CuZnNi with the Brandenburg Gate. Appeared in circulation, mintage about 18 million in that year, with about 1.7 million not melted down. Christian
Should still be possible. Have a look at these two for example: https://www.ma-shops.de/witte/cat.php5?catid=1203&lang=de&ref=itemCatLeft Christian
The amount of melting modern coins have undergone is simply staggering. These coins are fiscally abused by the issuer or demonetized to the point that they are worth more as scrap than as coin. Then they are melted to make consumer products for a throw-away economy. Few people collect moderns and many of those coins not melted weren't melted because they had already been lost or destroyed. Even coins that existed at the time they were melted nd escaped this fate have very high attrition rate because the coins are considered worthless and it's still an economy based on waste, greed, and destruction. People assume all moderns are common but the reality is few have been saved in any condition and most of the large mintages have been destroyed by time or government action.
Next year this "modern" commemorating 20 years of statehood will be half a century old. It will soon be 30 years since the coins were melted. Time don't fly, it leaps and bounds. It really does "fugit" and we're well advised to "mind our business".
I didn’t realize so many of them were melted down. That’s very interesting. Did that most happen after the GDR ceased to exist and the coins were demonitized?
Many moderns have been recalled over the years and it's difficult to know exact numbers melted and surviving. East German coins were turned in ion much larger numbers than most and this especially applied to high denomination base metal coins. The 5 M was especially redeemed because it had been nearly worthless under the "communists" and was suddenly worth in excess of $3. A very high percentage would have been turned in and this probably even affects some collector specimens since there was no market. Imagine sitting on a roll of worthless BU 5M and suddenly being able to get $3 each!!! The total amount of East German currency was sufficiently small that they could afford to accept it at face value, so they did. Until people collect this sort of stuff there's simply no way to know how difficult it is to find. Krause lists it at $5.50 in MS-65 and the scarcer version at $45, but who knows the relative scarcity? Some of the East German moderns are very tough and some are not. The US had very poor relations with the E Germany in 1969 so most specimens are probably in Russia and Soviet block countries nearby. Cuba was close but there wasn't much travel. I'd guess the common version isn't extremely tough in lower grades or they would have a higher price. They don't all get redeemed and it's possible for redeemed coins to be diverted in some cases. Krause prices (especially for moderns) are not relevant oftimes even in more heavily collected series. I'd be interested in any specific knowledge bout these coins.
The commemorative coins of the German Democratic Republic were melted down in two "phases": first around 1980 (the Schön catalog says 1976-1982) in order to have silver for future issues. Then around 1990 (Schön: 1987-1991), partly for the same reason as before, partly because many were turned in after the "East-West" currency union had been established. At least we know how many coins were melted down. Such figures are not known when it comes to DM coins from the Federal Republic of Germany, even though Vebeg (a federal government agency that sells a wide variety of products which the "feds" do not need any more) auctions "decoined" pieces off from time to time. They do that with euro coins too, by the way. One example from a few years ago: about 18,500 kg scrap metal from decoined €10 collector coins in CuNi. In a German coin forum somebody tried doing the maths and wrote that, based on so and so many Vebeg auctions, about one fourth of the €10 CuNi issue volume was destroyed. (They simply were not popular; today the collector coins issued at face are silver again, but with a €20 face value.) Back to the GDR coins, it is interesting to look at the themes of the commems. Some had relatively high mintages, were CuNi, had raised rims and (often) "socialist" themes. Those could be relatively easily acquired even by GDR citizens. Then there were export pieces, mostly silver and with themes that people in the Federal Republic (West G.) might find appealing too. Getting one of these in the GDR (East G.) was more difficult. Christian
Wow, this is great information. Thanks guys. Here is another question concerning the GDR 5 mark coin. I know they were meant for circulation...but why were two versions made. Was the 25% nickel coin also made for circulation...or were they made more for collectors? Or, did they start making them and decide the composition wasn't right and then switch? Why make them in two very different compositions?
I would suspect the rise of metal prices would have influenced decisions. If I recall correctly in mid 1960s, there were concerns that copper prices were increasing, similar to what happened around 2005.
The catalogs that I have do not provide the same info - but maybe just because one of the two I have is older. My 2011 Jaeger says that the CuNi version (Cu75) was a test issue that never entered circulation. Schön 2017 explains that the relevant government bulletin had merely demanded "Kupfernickel", so both types had legal tender status. There are lots of other varieties of that coin, e.g. Cu63 Zn37 or Cu62 Zn20 Ni18, but those are considered to be patterns. Also, some of the regular (Cu90) coins are magnetic while most are not. And a lucky collector might have found an error piece with a Mongolian edge inscription ... Christian
Because the Berlin mint, then in East Berlin, minted coins for Mongolia too. The regular edge inscription is "5 MARK" (four times), but the rare exception may say "HЭГ TӨГPӨГ" (1 tugrik) or "ТАВИН МӨНГӨ" (50 mongo), in Cyrillic characters. Kind of strange as the diameters do not match ... Christian
I know there was a rare Mongolian error...but I didn't realize there were two versions of it. Wasn't there another GDR coin that also had a Mongolian inscription error on the rim as well?
