Yeah goldmark, the entire modern bullion phenomenon baffles me. The premium people pay for MS69 or MS70 bullion astounds me. But, to each their own I suppose.
This has the same reverse design as the 2 Frankfurt coins I posted earlier, but it has a different look on copper. Also, are there any other good places to buy German Empire coins? I've been using mainly eBay so far.
Absolutely correct, for someone who wishes to invest in gold what could there be better than invest in such gorgeous old gold coins which on top of all are even cheaper per gram than the standard one ounce gold bullion coins, how I wish this would be true for other precious metals too. The MS69 & MS70 bullion story astounds not only you. my recommendation: http://www.ma-shops.de/
While I fully second that, people who plan to buy there should be aware of the fact that MA-Shops is not one dealer but a platform for many dealers. Makes searching and comparing easy, but if you buy from, say, four different dealers there, you'll end up paying for shipping four times. Not a big deal if the seller is near you though. Christian
Most of them do, if you want to be on the safe side you can contact them. In many cases there is also some room left to negotiate prices for individual pieces.
I can only recomand MA - Shops, in all this years I have been buying coins there , I was dissapointed only twice. Best regards, Mynter
I have bought many coins from Ma-shops. Never a problem. Shipping does take awhile, but that's to be expected. It's best to make larger purchases to help bear the cost of the shipping.
I've never understood how or why people here in the U.S purchase from MA-shop. I may be wrong but everything is way overpriced in my opinion. Also factor in the Euro exchange rate and the fact that the vast majority of coins aren't even graded. This isn't just the online shops. From personal travel coins of any kind are very pricey in Europe. From my current experience I would recommend a nice U.S world coin dealer such as berk, northeast, teller over any dealer in MA-shops. But again, perhaps I am wrong, maybe bargains do exist in MA-Shops if one takes the time to search thoroughly
From my experience and the types I buy, the prices are right inline with ebay. But the reason I buy from MA-Shops is the selection. When I need a specific year and mm, they have it. -greg
It depends what you are looking for and at wich MA - dealer you want to buy. When it comes to german emperial coins I find MA competitive to most floor auction, and compared to ebay much much relieable when the matter of authenticy is concerned. Anyway I sometimes wonder if not the french MA - shops are more expensive than the german ones ? Could that be the matter ? Best regards, Mynter
I acquired a few more German coins yesterday: one in copper bearing the initials of Wilhelm I, a silver coin dated 1874, a nickel coin dated 1913, and a dull tin coin from WWI
European grades are more conservative in my opinion, just translating the name/grade from one language to the other doesn't mean they bear the same meaning and it also depends on the type of coins you look at. For common German coins the best place to look for is nat. Germany, for high grade coins there are some differences I've noticed (German Empire 2 Pfennig proof).
I know this is from the "German States" era, not Empire, but I just saw this listed on eBay, again from aspencoins. It's interesting how the eagle design transformed over the years.
The two eagles have two different meanings here. The piece commemorates the opening of the National Assembly in 1848. The crowned single-headed eagle* refers to the city of Frankfurt, the double eagle refers to Germany as a whole, which the parliament represented. But since the parliament was basically a "child" of the 1848 revolution, the Prussian king and some other rulers would not accept things like a constitutional monarchy and other "strange" ideas that the National Assembly had ... (* In the Holy Roman Empire quite a few free cities used the eagle in their CoA to indicate that they had no ruler but the emperor "above" them.) Christian
In order to keep this great thread going, I today would like to post pictures of a Bavarian 2 - Mark of 1876. This is a contemporay fake made for circulation. The kings head and the eagle are realy convincing,so I could very well imagine that this one could pass for real; but if you look at the inscription you will notice a lot of spots wich show that the dies where home made.The alloy is not silver and the coin is heavilly underweight . I compared the rim with the rim of a legitemite coin ( the fake on top ), thye ribbons are much broader and irregular compared to the origional one.