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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Eduard, post: 1326016, member: 8959&quot;]Hi gbroke, Here is some background to the coinage of the German Reich:</p><p>I hope this will help explain the coinage of Imperial Germany.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>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.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>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).</p><p><br /></p><p>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 </p><p>ruler) for the following states:</p><p><br /></p><p>- Duchy of Anhalt</p><p>- Grand Duchy of Baden</p><p>- Kingdom of Bavaria</p><p>- Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg</p><p>- Free city state of Hamburg</p><p>- Grand duchy of Hessen</p><p>- Free city state of Lübeck</p><p>- Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin</p><p>- Grand Duchy of Oldenburg</p><p>- Dukedom of Reuss, both older and younger line.</p><p>- Kingdom of Sachsen</p><p>- Duchy of Sachsen-Altenburg</p><p>- Duchy of Sachsen Coburg und Gotha</p><p>- Duchy of Sachsen Meiningen</p><p>- Dukedom of Schaumburg-Lippe</p><p>- Dukedom of Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen</p><p>- Dukedom of Waldeck</p><p>- Kingdom of Württemberg </p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; 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. </p><p><br /></p><p>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. </p><p><br /></p><p>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.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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