I spent about 8 or 9 months in Europe in 2004. Most of that time I was in the city of Karlsruhe teaching English. I did pick up a few German souvenirs while I was there - mainly the odd coin here and there and the occasional medal. My options were going to the local coin place or the one in Stuttgart. The place in Stuttgart had a nice man running the place, but he mostly dealt in medals. The local place was more coin-oriented but the people running the place were quite rude and unfriendly by and large. German customer service is a rare commodity. I decided to go to the local place this time, and I asked the person working the desk to see the folders of coins. He condescendingly looked me over and said they cost more money. I said I could always get more. As I opened the folders I saw a lot of green. A LOT of it. I was entering a PVC nightmare, and there was NOT a whole lot of quality Kaiserreich material. I was getting frustrated when I spotted this coin sparkling in the muck. I could hardly believe it. I asked him to name his price and he said 85 Oyro. This seemed entirely reasonable to me so I rescued it and it's been with me ever since. It's one of the coins I don't think I could ever sell.
first of all oyro is called euro, you probably noticed that most countries in Europe use this currency. Anyways, you paid a good price for that coin, i had sold the exact same coin for about 500$ (about 300 euros).
how is it that Germany makes the BEST OF EVERYTHING!? guns, cars, coins, beer, sausage, optics, and of course water pipes (ROOR) lol Of course this is all just opinion and we know what they say about those.... but my god thats a beautiful coin!
This is a very interesting era in German coinage. Well... most eras in German coinage are interesting to me except for more modern issues. And Nazi coins. I hate Nazi coins.
At least it does not sound as bad as the English pronunciation which always reminds me of ... ah well. Sorry to hear about that green gunk experience (shudder). As for customer service in general, guess that for people who are used to one style have some difficulty coping with another style. Fortunately you ended up getting a very nice piece in great condition. Christian
Darkhorse - Great story and a very nice coin. Interesting avatar coin as well. I love how this reads... "As I opened the folders I saw a lot of green. A LOT of it. I was entering a PVC nightmare..."
Hmm, €300 is about $400, but that would still be too much for this piece. In EF you would pay about €100, and in unc (which is what I think this is, judging from the photo) €200 maybe ... Christian
Very attrative design. Coins like that are the reason to collect outside the USA. Compare the esthetics of your coin to a 50 States Quarter design and its hard to imagine both coins were actually struck on the same planet.
Apples and oranges come to mind. That Bremen coin was minted more than a century ago. If you want to compare a US state quarter to a "Bremen" piece of (roughly) the same period of time, pick this one: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/images/coins/de_2010.jpg In general I appreciate the fact that today's coins do not necessarily look like pieces that were made 100 or 150 years ago. Does not mean that I like all contemporary designs, definitely not. Then again, I have seen pretty bland designs dated 1900 or so as well ... Christian
Nice contemporary Bremen coin you linked to. There are a few decent newer US issues, the 2000 US $10 bimetal commem for the Library of Congress comes to mind. Genrally, most US issues have too many legends, and in the case of the 50 states coins, the font of the legends is something more suitable for a carnival token than circulating coinage.
It is gorgeous. It is about the size of a quarter or half dollar? I have a 5 marks coin from the same time period. Mine are not in as good of shape as yours.
In general I would agree with you. I'm from Canada so I mainly grew up with those coins, and other world coins as well. I'm putting together a US type set now, and although there's limited appeal to Barber coinage for instance, it's still a fun set to put together. Some US coins do indeed run rampant with legends: take the Texas commems from the 30s. Talk about a busy design! But you know, it has a certain charm to it. sunflower, the coin is the same size as a half dollar.
