When I was stationed in Germany I kept every bit of change I got and never looked at it for like 20years. Recently, I've started going thru it and have made some very neat discoveries. Here is a 1922 (IRON) 10 Reich Pfennig which according to Krause is worth $40 in fine and $130 in VF. This is the one with the dots around the eagle w/o mintmark. I wonder if rust is considered TONING in iron coinage, LOL. Take Care Bone
If a layer of silver sulfide tarnish is called "toning", why should'nt a layer of iron oxide tarnish get the same respect?:goofer:
Hmm ... on these coins the mintmarks (if present) are really tiny. Could that thing in the circle below possibly be a "D"? Maybe it's just rust, but you should look for the same character on the other side of the eagle's tail. Not that this makes a big difference in value, in this particular case. Christian
I'm sure it's no (D) Here is a better example showing the mintmark on the right side of the tail on another cleaner example. The one I have has no mintmark. Bone
Rust or Iron Oxide is a bloody pest that will eat up the coin if you aren't careful, i.e. more than surface area. On the other hand, silver toning, or silver sulfide just reacts most of the time with the surface area of the coin. The level of damage is quite different and actually it is a lot harder to preserve iron coins if one lives in a humid area or salty enviroment.
I also pulled a 3rd Reich 1943 Pfennig which as in just about the same shape but it had the little swastika. These were still in circulation in the early/mid 80's isn't that wild??? B
Wow. I have never seen such a piece occur "in the wild" here in Germany; they were demonetized in the Western zones in late 1948. The oldest legal tender pieces one could come across here during the DM years was a 1 Pfennig piece dated 1948. Those did actually still occur from time to time. Kind of odd by the way that in Austria the 1 Reichspfennig coins with the swastika continued to be legal tender until February 2002 - worth 0.01 Schilling and thus practically non-existent in everyday life ... Christian
Here's a picture. I was stationed there from 1982-1987, lived in Rodenbach (sp) and was stationed at Ramstein then Sembach. Bone/Ben
The oldest coins I ever got in circulation in Germany were the 1950 50 Pf coins, and there are a lot of them, they were struck with a frozen date until the late 1950's or early 1960's. I even got one in change in of all places, Russia.
I lived in Germany from 1960-64 and as kids,we would occasionally find pfennigs with swastikas on them while digging in the playground.At the time,this was not unusual as it was only 15 years since the end of the war. Anyone know which mint "A" was?
The mintmark, is that a B or an E? B would be Vienna, which after WW2 became the Austrian Mint again. E is Muldenhütten (Saxony), used by the GDR until 1953 ... Christian
The A was and is for Berlin. Back then that was the mint with the largest production share (that is Stuttgart now). "A" was first used for Berlin (Prussia), then for Berlin (German Empire), then for Berlin (GDR), then for Berlin (Fed. Rep.) - always the same mint @Krasnaya Vityaz: Yep, the 50 Pfennig coins made between 1949 and 1996 stayed in circulation until the end 2001. And the 1, 5, 10 and 50 Pf pieces produced 1950-1965 do indeed all have the year 1950 ... Christian
