I finally got a type C Reverse 1916 DOA (German East Africa) 20 Heller. It is a Type A Obverse. It is also known as a no error LL. It really should be called a Type A Reverse since this was the first Reverse they minted. The loop on the first L broke off on the master die early on and then most of the remaining 20 Hellers minted on that die were errors and should be called type B IMO, but are called Type A for some reason. There is also a type B Reverse with sharp pointy L's and it is the most common. There are two varieties of the Obverse as well. A large crown like shown here is type A and a the smaller crown variety is type B. Plus these all come in copper or brass making something like 12 varieties. The history of the circumstances that these coins were minted make them extremely interesting to me. Anyway, I have been looking for any type C Reverse for a while now and finally found this one on a Germany website and I really like it.
By my calculation, and this is taking into account the C Reverse, you are absolutely correct in stating that there are in fact precisely a dozen permutations and/or distinct varieties of this one denomination of Deutsch Ost Afrika coinage.
My math may be off, but by my best count and with the calculation taking into account the C Reverse, there may in fact be at least twenty permutations and/or distinct varieties of this one denomination of Deutsch Ost Afrika coinage.
Keep in mind that this was notgeld, produced during WW1 at a hastily set up mint in Tabora. The dies for the 5 heller and 20 heller coins were made by (primarily Indian) goldsmiths, were not hard enough for "mass" production and thus had to be replaced fairly frequently. Also, they did not really care about the material. Bronze, brass, anything worked. Hence the many type differences - the Jaeger catalog (German, widely used here) uses four catalog numbers for the 20 heller coin alone, with a and b types for each number, plus "more varieties known" for every type. It is also quite difficult to determine whether a Tabora coin is brass or bronze. So a seller or buyer who is into those varieties would have to have the density and conductivity of a coin checked ... Christian
I own an analytical testing lab so I plan on using SEM/EDS to determine the exact metals in each of my 20 Hellers. One of mine look like it has areas which are copper and areas that are brass within the same coin. I want to do a study on the different metals used to make these coins. I have read they used a cannon from a ship they scuttled, copper pipes, brass from spent ammo, etc. But I only have four of these coins right now.
My apologies...my calculations were way off...with the information provided, the number of distinct varietal possibilities should have come to twelve, not twenty. Oops.
Thanks for the additional information regarding this Notgeld produced for Deutsches Ost Afrika. The German state clearly had so much less territory relatively speaking than the British and French in Africa that it's always interesting to come across something originating from the far less prominent and scarcer possessions of Das Vaterland.
New here and still trying to figure out navigating through this site. I found a 50 Reichspfennig 1940G. I haven't attempted to clean it at all. It's very scratched up looking. Can someone please let me know it's grade? If it has error/defect(s) value?
This 1913 1 rupie with a J mint mark is from Hamburg, and the 1916 20 heller with the T mint mark is from Tabora?
here are my Siegesthaler from 1871. At the end of 1871 the Reichsmark was established, see the 2nd coin