I've recently begun collecting these for Silver: These were made from 1951 to 1971 in West Germany and they contain almost a quarter of an ounce of silver. The great thing is I've found I can often get these right at or below spot value. The last few I've bought from eBay I got for $8 a piece, with free shipping. Of course, I've cleaned all of mine since most of them were really nasty looking when I got them. I only have these 8 that are pictured above at the moment. I was going to fill a whole tube and then move on to something else. Any other countries have silver currencies I should look into collecting, besides the ones we often discuss here?
Quick correction adric22, these were made from (1951-1974). My favorite foreign coin! I absolutely love the eagle design. I collect both the proofs and business strikes. Although you can get a lot of them at spot, it is not easy to find all of the years in MS condition, that's for sure. Some will cost quite a bit. Please don't clean them! I wrote a thread about them here: http://www.cointalk.com/t210313/ I am trying to complete a year set with all uncirculated examples. Here are a few examples: -greg
Gbroke, you seem to know a lot about these. I've not been able to find a whole lot of info on them. I've actually been to Germany twice, but never actually seen one of these coins in circulation. The last time I went there was a few years ago and they were using the Euro by that point. I'm curious what happened to all of these coins once they converted to the Euro? Were they melted down for their silver? I'm also curious.. Did they actually make these coins every single year from 1951 to 1974? There are certain years I never see on eBay and I am not sure why.
Here are the years they were not produced: 1952 1953 1954 1955 1962 The first year (1951) there were 70 million + minted. That's 10 x's more than most of the year figures. As far as where are they all, that's a good question. Many circulated 5 marks can be found. I think there are still a fair amount of higher grade examples available or tucked away in collections. Although, maybe when they went to the Euro, people hoarded them. I'm not sure. I don't know if there was a big melt of these coins. Because of the lower silver content, the melting costs would be higher than other silver coins with much higher silver percentage. I wonder how readily available they are in Germany as well. -g
Pre-Euro I could find those and the silver 10DM coins in exchange windows in the rail stations and in banks. I would buy them because they were fun to spend, the actual value of the coin was a lot more than the silver in it and I can honestly say I have spent silver coins. In France you could occasionally find the 100FF coins but I ended up keeping all of those. Curiously the older 1970's silver 50FF coins had been demonetised so you could buy them for I think 35FF which then was the melt value of them.
You may want to look at the silver coins that circulated in Canada. You have a nice collection there. :thumb:
I collect German 5 Mark coins, but prefer the earlier German States - example would be this 1914 5 mark coin (see pics). These are 90% silver and have 0.4 ounces of silver content. They tend to carry a bit of a premium, even for circulated coins, but I enjoy them, especially trying to collect all the various mint marks. Also, I agree wholeheartedly with gbroke... please don't clean your coins. Yes, they are yours to do with as you wish. But I bet if you found an original oil painting by DaVinci, you wouldn't try to clean it up with windex or a scrub brush! Leave them in their original state and they will be happy coins!
They were first issued in May 1952, and stayed in circulation until August 1975. In those years, the silver 5 DM coins did actually circulate - the 5 DM note was not really used much. The Federal Republic of Germany issued commemorative silver coins at face value until mid-2011. First they were 5 DM coins like the normal circulation coins, then 10 DM, then €10. But like in most countries you hardly ever find collector coins in circulation that do not have a corresponding "regular" piece, so the silver tenners usually ended up in the albums, boxes, etc. of collectors. Whatever was or is returned to the Bundesbank, in terms of older coins, is usually sold by the Vebeg as scrap metal. (Back when the volume was high, several so-called decoiners were used at various locations in the euro area which would deface the pieces for that purpose.) Silver coins were/are "filtered" and sold separately. Christian
The circulation pieces were Ag625 Cu375. That also applies to many collector coins issued at face, except that some of the latter (1998-2010) were Ag925 ... Christian
That depends.. IF it were known that windex and a scrub brush would actually work and make the oil painting look more like it did when it was freshly painted, then yes I would do it. However, we all know that wouldn't turn out well in this case. Sorry, but I've just never understood people who think coins should look tarnished. It would be like somebody bringing an old rusty 1957 chevy to a car show. Somehow the rust is supposed to make it look original? Sorry, but I like my antiques to be restored to look as close to new as possible. When people carried these coins around with them decades ago, they were not all tarnished like this. Why should we have to look at them in that condition just because some collector says they are worth more money that way?
Wow you're the first pro-cleaning person I come across in this forum... if you're collecting for the metal value only I guess the NGC conservation service is not an option. German 5 Mark silver pieces are great coins, did you know there are proofs? Greg posted some proofs, really nice!
Well, they're collector coins but you can get them everywhere... and as someone else has mentioned, many exist in lower grades, but they're harder to get in MS and only rarely I spot one in a slab.
Fine, and I agree. Problem is that, with old paintings for example, you would probably consult an expert instead of restoring it "the DIY way". Basically the same applies to coins. A few things you can do yourself, but you need to know what to do and how to do it without damaging the surface or relief. When in doubt, don't. Christian
