...Totally by accident! I nabbed this coin out of a discount bin at CoinFest. When I got home and was doing some research on it in my Krause book, I see that the version with the writing around the edge is a commerative! When I purchased it I did not know it was a commemerative, I bought it simply because I like German coins and I did not have this example in my collection yet! I was somewhat surprised to see that there are so many varieties of this coin, 11 total. It celebrates the third anniversary of the Weimar republic. Mine was struck in Berlin (the A on the reverse bottom) On the non-commerative version, the Eagle is larger and there are no words on the Obverse. I have always enjoyed seeing the German commeratives, both in books and in posts, and now I have one of my own! I also really enjoy aluminum coins, and this fits that bill as well!
Nice "catch" That coin was issued shortly before the hyperinflation. There is also a 1923 version which hardly made it into circulation as it came out at a time when it was practically worthless ... Christian
Thanks for the comments! I paid roughly $8 for it...I bought a big stack of stuff from the dealer (about 15 coins) and he rounded off the price for me. I think it was an excellent deal! Although I have quite a few German coins, (32, ranking it 4th most in my collection) this is actually my first Mark issue! All the others are mostly 1-10 pfennig issues. From the same dealer I also purchased a 1908-E Half Mark and a 1920-A 50 Pfennig Later in the day I got a 1917 5 pfennig that is in rough shape from a different dealer for 10 cents. While I always say that I purposely don't have a focus, I do tend to favor coinage from certain countries, and Germany would be one of them Thanks again!
