When I was stationed in Washington state I got into metal detecting. I was able to search the yards in base housing that were being renovated. Nothing mind blowing, but a nice variety.
Hey, there! Somebody's dropped a 1986 100 Yen coin, a 1980 1 Yen coin, and a 1968 5 Won coin. I'm working on completing a contemporary (1946-1982) Japanese year set, and I have a S. Korean 5 Won year set in BU. See video below. Where these three coins found all together?
Also (besides the 10 and 2-pfennig pieces) a 1972 Philippine 25 Sentimos, and an El Salvadoran 5 centavos from 1940-something.
The pfennigs are from F/Stuttgart and D/Munich. Not worth much (16 cent in terms of euro cash) also because Stuttgart makes most of the modern German coins. But neat finds nevertheless. Especially that Korean coins looks cool in my opinion. Christian
I agree! Christian, can you tell me more about the Staatliche Münze (State Mint) in Karlsruhe? Did/does that mint strike circulation coins? S. Korea's first silver proofs were minted there in the early 1970s and sold via Italcambio. I wrote an article about these coins a couple of years ago. And why F for Stuttgart and D for Munich?
When the Deutsches Reich (1871-1948) was founded, the Prussian alphabetical order was used for the mints but extended to cover all states. So the setup in 1871 was: A=Berlin, B=Hannover, C=Frankfurt for the active Prussian mints; followed by D=Munich (Bavaria), E=Dresden (Saxony), etc. The current five mints still use the letters from that system: A/Berlin, D/Munich, F/Stuttgart, G/Karlsruhe, J/Hamburg. All German mints are state (not federal) operations, and yes, Karlsruhe does make circulation coins. Usually Stuttgart's share is 24%, then Munich and Hamburg (21% each), then Berlin (20%), and finally Karlsruhe (14%). But 14 percent of several million coins is still too much to make a coin in circulated condition valuable. Christian
Thanks Christian. Do all of the operating mints in Germany make silver proofs? I am just wondering if the reason the Karlsruhe mint took on the job of making these Korean silver coins in 1970-1974 was because that mint specialized in proofs and/or foreign orders.
