1920 German War Token - Preserving?

This 1920 kleingeldersatzmarke 10 pfennig came with a recent lot that I purchased. My best guess is it's made of iron. (There was a 1918 war token that I found that was made of zinc.)

Is there anything that you'd recommend to help preserve this coin? It's pretty nice except for the rust.

 

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I have had this problem with old iron notgeld type coins like these. What I did was soak them in WD40...some I have soaked for a brief time in rust remover then in WD40...I will post an Aachen coin I got that was rather rusted and what it looks like after I soaked it (this time a remembered to take before and after photos) when I get home

Oh, it may also require light scrubbing with a soft bristled brush in between soaks in WD40. It did not leave any visible marks on the few coins I have done this one. The rust remover I used also acts as a rust preventer...as does WD40 so I did not de-grease.

yours seems to be in rather good condition save for the bit of rust, I would certainly at least soak it even if you are against using a soft brush...but it might require a long soak and you will probably need to AT LEAST rub it lightly with a soft cloth.

 

Thanks Drusus

While I don't think I can bring myself to take a bristle brush to the medal, I'd like to see your before and after pictures.

WD40 does do wonders for rusted bolts.

I've used electrolysis to remove rust from cast iron followed by mineral spirits and steel wool to really make the cast iron shine! (Umm, but I don't think I can get myself to use steel wool on a coin/medal either.)

 

Sorry, forgot to put up the pics, I will do that tonight when I get home...I can assure you that a soft brush did no more harm than the rust which pits if allowed to continue...I promise I will post them tonight. I think electrolysis is more effort than is need on your coin.

 

Here you go:



I didnt want to color correct them so the over all color might not be great. There is still discoloration areas on the after where the worst rust was but I dont think its active rust. It certainly isnt red at all any more.

 

It sure does look better!

You're the only person in all the posts I've read here that has dealt with iron rust. Heck, before getting the war token, I didn't know any moderns where made of iron.

Maybe it's time to read some posts about ancients!

Thanks for posting Drusus.

 

Well, if you get into notgeld, and there are a lot of great notgeld out there, you will most likely run into a rusty iron coin here and there. Good luck!

 

He already did. In 1920 there was no war, neither in Fulda nor in Aachen. These are not war tokens but "local money" issued in the times of change shortage but before the high inflation period. Your "Öcher Grosche" does indeed look better now ...

Christian

 

I guess I meant if he ends up buying a lot of them if he hasn't already. If I am not mistaken 'war' money is Kriegsgeld while Notgeld is emergency money so to call them notgeld would not be in error as they are coins to fill an lack of change which could conceivably be considered a emergency stop gap procedure. Please correct me if I am wrong, you probably know more about it than me.

In this thread we have an Öcher Grosche which I believe means 'Aachen Grosche'...Grosche being 10 Pfennig. We also have a Kleingeldersatzmarke which I think mean something like 'Replacement Small Change' or something like that.

I guess I often call most of these notgeld as a general term for local money, war money, any local municipal or business emergency issue from 1914 to 1923 Germany and Austria and the like. It was my understanding a lot of these werent even used or even meant to be used so one might even call then a commemorative token 'wertmarke' meant only to be bought and collected.

Also, I got an interesting e-mail the other day regarding another Aachen coin I have:





According to legend the money for the construction of the famous cathedral Ahenskogo given features. Ahensky Cathedral, part of the ten most famous cathedrals of the world, is listed in the list of world cultural heritage by UNESCO. There are more than 600 years old Germanic emperors were crowned. The cathedral was built, when in Europe about buildings of this scale and never dreamed of, and only Aachen, the capital of Charlemagne's empire, could afford such a grand building.

As the legend goes, the money for the cathedral gave the devil. But given a reason, and provided that the townspeople will give him the soul of one who was the first step over the threshold of the cathedral. A beautiful temple has stood in the middle of the square, but no one dared to enter it, and demanded the promised features of the living soul. And then the townspeople caught in the surrounding forests of the wolf and dragged him to the entrance of the temple. There, the beast fired and struck the bell loudly, so that the wolf, frightened, rushed straight into the open gate of the temple. Damn pounced on a poor beast, and in fact from fear - and the spirit won. Only here the devil saw that he got little soul useless. Beside himself with rage, he rushed with a wild roar from the temple, but first kicked the iron gates of the cathedral. From such a blow doors cracked, and a crack at them visible so far. City authorities ordered in memory of the wolf-beast martyr cast in bronze, and separately - his poor soul. It indeed looks like a big fir-cone, but still decorates the temple, which houses the marble throne of Charlemagne, and hangs from the ceiling, wrought-iron chandelier - a gift of Frederick Barbarossa.

This person sent me this link:

http://www.weltreport.de/germany/2007/05/31/aachen_dom_sagen/

So I guess this person is saying it is a wolf but I thought it was supposed to be a female bear...are you familiar with this?

 

You are of course right Christian about there being no war in 1920.

The tokens usage sounds quite similar to the "hard times tokens" of the 1830s here in the USA.

(I take it from your statement that my token originated in Fulda, Germany.)

 

Cool legend Drusus.

And I sure like these coins better than your double chinned merchant coin!

 

They realy do have wonderful designs on some of them :smile dont forget to post a pic of the coin after a soak :high5:

 

Actually I bought the "market woman" and "beast" pieces too, some time last year. (And one from Koblenz; the guy who sticks his tongue out.) Fortunately they are not terribly expensive, so I could justify the expense even though I don't really collect notgeld.

Admittedly I don't know what that animal is supposed to be. However, if we assume that the three Aachen pieces are all related to the cathedral, and the legends around its construction, the "bear-wolf" and the woman make sense.

There is a scupture in the cathedral which shows a female wolf - a reference to the one that fed Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. (One of many references to the ancient Roman Empire that Charlemagne used - after all, he regarded "his" empire to be a sort of successor to the ancient empire.) So much for the facts.

The legend however says that the Aacheners ran out of funds when the cathedral was built in the 8th century. Charlemagne could have supplied the money, but was in some remote part of his empire. So they made a deal with the devil: He would help them build/complete the church, and they would leave him the soul of the first person to enter the completed cathedral.

What to do? Well, the night before Charlemagne and Pope Leo would officially open the cathedral, the Aacheners caught a bear which would then be "pushed" into the cathedral where the devil was already waiting for his prey. The impatient devil just noticed a two-legged something (guess that is why for the legend a wolf would not work) and took it with him. Full of anger about his error, he ran out of the church - so quickly that one of his thumbs was torn off and got stuck in the cathedral entrance door.

Again assuming a "cathedral background", the woman from Aachen - on your first coin - was about as clever as the Aacheners were with that bear. Of course the devil was looking for revenge, and decided to "bury" the cathedral underneath lots of sand that he would shlep from the North Sea to Aachen. Well, even the devil gets tired once in a while, especially with those huge sacks of sand. So he wanted to make a pause not too far from Aachen.

He asked a market (or peasant) woman who was coming from the city how far it was. The woman however noticed his horse foot or his tail. Oh dear, the devil on his way to Aachen? She quickly said that the city and the market were still awfully far away, pointed at her bad shoes and a hard loaf of bread, and said she had bought both, new, at the market (in the sense of, can you tell how far Aaachen is?). The devil got terribly angry again, left all his sand where he was, ran away and never came back to Aachen.

This way a farmer/market woman saved the city, and this way the Lousberg (a "mountain" north of Aachen) was created: A heap of sand, left there by the devil. Believe it or not.

Edit: As for the second tale, here http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aachen_devil_and_woman.jpg is a picture and an English description of a monument in Aachen which shows what, umm, happened back then.

Christian

 

Yes, that is where it was issued. You may know how bad Germans are when it comes to compounds: Sometimes we love to concatenate words. Drusus already explained it; "Kleingeldersatzmarke" consists of four elements:

KLEIN - small
GELD - money
ERSATZ - replacement / in lieu of
MARKE - token

The first two together - "Kleingeld" - is "small change"; "ersatz" occurs in English too (but with a more pejorative meaning than in German). Thus "token in lieu of small change". The "10" most probably means 10 pfennig.

On the other side you see "Stadt Fulda", ie. City of Fulda, and the year. Fulda is a city in the German state of Hessen. The knight holds two shields which, combined, are the CoA of the city: The cross refers to Fulda Abbey, the origin of the place so to say. The plant in the other shield is three lilies representing Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrix, three martyrs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius,_Faustinus_and_Beatrix and, since Bonifatius brought their relics to Fulda, patrons of the city.

Christian

 

NEVER Clean Coins. That also goes for tokens as well. Cleaning of tokens, like Coins significantly diminish collector value. Leave it Original. Maybe not now, but perhaps someday, that token just could become a valuable rarity.

Cleaning a coin or token is truly a bad habit to get into.

 

Thanks again Christian for giving us such interesting background for our tokens.

Here goes the soaking:

 

Good advice, its probably better to let it rust away, then those that have been taken care of WILL be worth much more and more rare.

I LOVE the old Market Frau coin from Aachen!! Its one of my all time favorite coins from this time period. Honestly.

Chris, I thought it might have been you who told me it was a bear but thanks for the clarification, I can update my pages for these coins now. Much appreciated as usual.

I find these coin to be quite fascinating and some of them are down right striking. Their reasonable price and interesting history makes them a great side collection project. When I cant afford to spend much money but want and interesting piece, I go out and add another to my collection... just to post a few examples of my favorites from my collection that I think are exceptional:

While it not my favorite, I believe this is the coin Chris referred to, the guy with the tongue, known as the Augenroller





The Augenroller: This coin depicts the Augenroller (Eye Roller) which is a relief of a mans face that can be found on the clock tower of a gothic building in the old historical section of Koblenz. Its eyes move back and forth ticking off the seconds and every hour and half hour its tongue will protrude from its mouth.

The Augenroller depicts the knight Johann Lutter of Koburn who was accused of being a bandit. He was captured and after prolonged torture he is said to have confessed to his crimes and was sentenced to be beheaded on October 14, 1536. It is said that as he was led to the site of his execution he exclaimed in a loud voice 'Establish a monument to me and it will bring you luck!'. While on the platform he is said to have rolled his eyes and stretched out his tongue for the spectators and once his head lay severed it continued to roll its eyes and flap its tongue. This was taken as a sign from god so the citizens established the Augenroller monument.

The original Augenroller was destroyed during the second World War but a new one was erected and can be seen today under the clock on the tower of the beautiful gothic Mittelrhein Museum.

http://www.cachecoins.org/stadtcoblenz.htm

Then there are the designs I find to be extra ordinary or very interesting:

 

Umm, letting the rust remain on iron seems the equivalent of letting corrosion remain on copper coins.

This is preserving IMHO.

 

A few more:


Village of Boldixum on the Island of Föhr Porcelain 50 Pfennig Coin Depicting a Fish


City of Frankenthal (Rhineland-Palatinate) Iron 10 Pfennig Coin Depicting a Foundry Worker


City Savings Bank of Bielefeld (Westfalen) Gilded Bronze 1 Mark Coin / Post WW I Propaganda / Stab-in-the-Back / Occupation of the Ruhr

http://www.cachecoins.org/bielefeld02.htm

Probably what I like about most of them is they are often very simple and often have a very informal, anything goes, 'everyman' feel to them.

Good Luck!!

 

Sorry I badmouthed the double chin!

Wow, amazing stories.

Those are great coins Drusus!