I love working at starbucks...I always find the weirdest coins in the tip jars! I came home tonight with a doozy, and I hope someone can help me ID it. It appears to be a gold coin. The Obverse shows a man's face facing front, and it says Ernst Sachs, 1867-1932. The Reverse has the words Stadt Schweinfurt and 1967, and a shield with an eagle on it. I know Schweinfurt is a town in Bavaria. There doesn't seem to be a denomination on it, so I think maybe it is a commemorative coin, not currency. Has anyone seen anything like this before? Google is giving me no love on this one... Incidentally, any easy way to test if it is gold? It certainly seems to have the weight for it...
Not a coin but a medal, apparently issued by the city of Schweinfurt to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Ernst Sachs. This page (in German) has more info about Sachs, and also an image of a piece that may well be the same as yours: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Sachs Note that the description also says it's a gold piece. Now whether that is correct, or whether it is "golden", I cannot tell ... Christian
Yep, that's it exactly! Boy, google translater really mangles that page, doesn't it? I wonder why there is no other info on these medals...No idea how many were made, or for what reason they were given or awarded... Has anyone else ever come across a medal like this? I'll be taking it to a jeweler to see if they can tell if it's real gold...
Well I hope your medal is pure gold. You never know, what you will learn here. So I have Ernie Sachs to thank for the coaster brake on my kiddie bicycle. Those coaster brakes never failed me. Traci
Nitric Acid is a good test for gold...if the coin dissolves, well it is not gold..if it is not damaged at all, then it is gold. RickieB
Don't think this was a medal in the sense of an award - rather a piece that the city, or the local savings bank maybe, issued to commemorate the anniversary. A gold medal will often have a three-digit figure indicating its fineness. Not necessarily though, so it may still be a gold piece even without such a number ... Christian
