German Imperial Marks

I think forum member gbroke got me infected with his enthusiasm for these coins....

Went to a local coin show over the weekend and there was a dealer who had stacks of these late date german marks. Quite literally, he had them one stacked on top of the other for most of the late date and mint make combinations, 6 or 7 to a pile. Even though i have never paid any attention to the late date marks, I chose 8 which appealed to me, and priced at 6 euros each I could not resist.

I think they are all pretty high grade. Some appear completely pristine and devoid of any marks that I can tell, and are quite pretty. Not sure how you would grade them in the US, but I grade them " Nice!" (sorry about the really poor pictures, not easy to capture them all at once)


I am also attaching a picture of one of my early date marks (1878 J) with the old style imperial eagle. Some of those are truly rare, more so in very high grades.


If you are at a coin show and see some of these, you may want to take a closer look. They are old, silver, nice (and not expensive!)

 

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Those are in very nice condition for $8 U.S. each.

 

Yes Eduard! I love them of course. Beautiful coins for a very good price. Really liking the 1878. Nice pickups. I would love to have a complete set of the Marks. Some are expensive though, due to low mintages.
I'l l say it again: The reverse is so cool - An eagle holding a shield of an eagle holding a shield. How is that not just awesome?

 

In the German Empire, Prussia was the dominating state. The German eagle with the Prussian eagle in the middle reflects that ...

Christian

 

Good to know. Thanks chrislid.
I also collect and really like the 5 Mark "screaming eagle" from West Germany. You can get a lot of these in BU at melt.

 

Yes, I have quite a few of those too. I like the design because it has nothing but the eagle (not even a mint mark) on the eagle side. Coins from this country (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Federal Republic of Germany) I collect pretty systematically, no matter whether DM or euro, whether before Saarland or the Eastern states joined or after.

But I don't want to "hijack" Eduard's thread about coins from the German Empire. The difference between the "old style" eagle and the later one that he mentioned is quite interesting: The former - used until 1890 - had a relatively small German eagle while the Prussian eagle in the middle was fairly big. The later eagle filled the entire "circle", and the Prussian eagle became a little smaller.

Christian

 

These pre-World War I German silver Marks figured into the plot of the book World's End by Upton Sinclair, published in 1940.

In a book chapter set in Germany in 1919, American agent Lanny Budd uses some silver marks to bribe German policemen into releasing a friend.

These coins were worth a lot due to the currency inflation which was rampant in Germany then.

Anyway, I have one:

Germany 1 Mark 1913

 

Hello Eduard,

I like your 1878 1 Mark eagle. Here is an 1876 pattern 2 Mark eagle.

 

It is interesting to compare the 1876 pattern & the 1878 coin. They are all very nice eagles from Germany.

 

That is an interesting story willieboyd2. Thanks for sharing.

Impressive proof 2 Mark you have there, Collect89, and an interesting design. Which of the german states is it from?

On the topic of old style imperial eagles which Chrisild mentioned, here is a 5 Mark 1888 from Prussia. I am not sure, but I think this coin started life as a proof. The reverse is in very good condition, and you can really appreciate the intricate detail.

 

When I look for German Empire coinage, there are obviously the coins minted for circulation (1pf, 2pf, 5pf, 10pf,20pf,50pf,1/2 mk, and 1 mk).
What are the other categories? For example: Saxony-Anhalt, Baden, Prussia, Wurttemberg, etc..
Where these different regions or what? They have some really amazing coins, and sometimes expensive. Can someone explain these to me? I certainly wouldn't mind a coin from each.

I did buy a 5 MK Wurtemmberg, just because I liked the toning. But I do not know the significance.

 

Hi gbroke, Here is some background to the coinage of the German Reich:
I hope this will help explain the coinage of Imperial Germany.

When Bismarck unified Germany in 1871, this also brought about a radical change in the coinage away from the old system of talers, doppeltalers, gulden, doppelgulden, kreuzers, gröschen and so on, onto a simple decimal system with 100 Pfennig to the Mark.

Besides the minor coinage you mentioned, this coinage reform also introduced the 2, 3, 5, 10 and 20 Reichsmark coins. the 10 and 20 Mark coins were minted in Gold.

The difference between these larger denominations, and the smaller divisional coinage is that each of the major states, kingdoms, dukedoms etc which unified into the German Reich was permitted to mint the REVERSE of the coin bearing its own distinct arms, or the effigy of its ruler (if they had one).

So besides the coinage of Prussia, you will also find 2,3.5,10 and 20 Reichsmark coins bearing the arms (or the portrait of its
ruler) for the following states:

- Duchy of Anhalt
- Grand Duchy of Baden
- Kingdom of Bavaria
- Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg
- Free city state of Hamburg
- Grand duchy of Hessen
- Free city state of Lübeck
- Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin
- Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
- Dukedom of Reuss, both older and younger line.
- Kingdom of Sachsen
- Duchy of Sachsen-Altenburg
- Duchy of Sachsen Coburg und Gotha
- Duchy of Sachsen Meiningen
- Dukedom of Schaumburg-Lippe
- Dukedom of Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen
- Dukedom of Waldeck
- Kingdom of Württemberg

The most common 2,3,5 and 10, 20 mark coins are of course those of Prussia, but also those of the larger Kingdoms in the unified German empire, for example Baden, Bavaria, Sachsen and Württemberg. The issue of the smaller states like Waldeck, Reuss, Coburg-Gotha etc are generally scarce to rare as they were minted in much smaller numbers than those of the big 5.

All of the above coinage was minted at one of the 7/8 major mint locations (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J mintmarks). Some of the bigger states had their own mint locations, so their coins were minted there, for example Hamburg (J), or Württemberg (F). The issues for the smaller states were generally minted in Berlin.

I Hope all of this makes some sense. It all makes for a vast area of collecting, with many states and mintmark combinations, some of which are extremely difficult to find.

 

What is also interesting is that you could have your own gold coins (mostly 20M but also 10M) minted if you were willing to pay. Don't know how many private customers did that, but the Reichsbank (central bank) used that option a lot ...

Side note: The common English term for "Fürstentum" is principality, I think. So I'd say "Principality of Waldeck" etc.

Christian

 

Your are right, Christian. I was racking my brains for the the correct translation for Fürstentum, but was too lazy to look it up in the dictionary. So please replace Dukedom with Principality.

 

I assumed that it was made in Berlin as a pattern for possible use on all the German states. It is a 1-sided Schaaf 2 Mark pattern that I posted at CT last year.

 

Thank you Eduard. That is EXACTLY what I wanted to know. I see how rare some of the 'principalities' really are. Some are very very expensive. I just really like all of the coins. I think I will start off with the most common and go until I am out of money.

Thanks again!

 

Found this same one for sale on a website. Very cool.

This is all I could get out of the translation:
"2 Mark backs sample with other Eagle. most likely attributable Bavaria, as the dies of Ries is. back empty. Zinn. Weight 4.5 g. tinktiert bust already. Polished plate.Schaaf 2MG4. Similar examples are in the collection Beckenbauer and the Money Museum of the Bundesbank."

 

I think I located the Website you found. It is on www.muenzauktion.com (MA-SHOPS). They want 300 Euro (about $400) for the piece.

 

You got it. There are others similar to that piece, different denominations. I dig 'em!

 

I find some interested german coins on the website you mentioned (www.muenzauktion.com). However, I have some concerns about buying coins online. Especially, is it possbile to get some fake coins from there?