Post-WW2 Silver German coins?

What German coins, minted post-WW2 for circulation, were silver?

 

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WaA140,there was a series of West German 5 Deutsche Mark coins
that were issued for circulation from 1950 until around 1973.

Aidan.

 

Thanks. Once again, I'm off target with my coins. I have a couple of 2 Mark coins and a 5 mark coins that somebody once told me were silver but they are on two mark coin is date 1976 and the other and the 5 mark coin are 1979. Oh well... Thanks for the info.

 

The 2 DM & the 5 DM that you have got is actually cupro-nickel.

Aidan.

 

That's what I figured. I should have spent them when I had the chance.

 

Aidan is right, the 5 DM coins were made of silver (Ag625 Cu375) until 1974. The later ones are CuNi sandwich (Magnimat) pieces. Most of the DM commems were silver too (first 625, later 925). As for your CuNi pieces, well, they are still worth their value in € now, but having them exchanged may be expensive if you are far away from Germany these days ;-)

Christian

 

Well, I was half joking. I'm debating right now whether I want to expand my foreign coin collection or if I should trade it in. I have maybe a 100 coins from several different countries, mostly common coins from Canada, France and Germany and East Germany along with a smattering of coins from Great Britain, Finland, Greece, Bolivia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and maybe a few others I can't remember. It is interesting but lacks focus.

 

WaA140,you cannot cash in coins from East Germany.If you are on Ebay or another Internet auction website,you could sell them through there.Antidote can help you there.Send him a P.M. or an email.

Aidan.

 

Yes, I was aware that the East German coins have no legal tender value. Mostly, when I wrote "trade them in" I was thinking along the lines of trading my foreign coin collection with other collectors or at coin shows or shops. I'm still quite undecided what I will do with all my foreign coins. I may decide to divest myself of some and keep a few. However, the East German coins were acquired during a day trip to East Berlin in 1980 and have some memories tied to them. Besides, they harken back to a bygone era in world history and are a monument to the failure of communism. Perhaps they, of all my foreign coins, should be kept for my children and grandchildren to ponder.

 

I thought the older 2 DM coins (I have a couple Max Plank ones from the 70s) were also silver? I got these in circulation.

 

Nein The first (eagle) and second (Planck) series of 2 DM coins were also copper-nickel pieces. The only difference is the composition: The first two types were Cu75 Ni25 while for the third series (between 1969 and 1996/2001) the "sandwich" composition was used that today can be found in the pills of the €1 and €2 coins.

Christian

 

Darn!!! Those sneaky b*§%$#s!!!!!!

The Plank ones really look like low grade silver. What is the compositon of the newer 2 DMs? The color difference is noticable enough that I thought I had struck gold, so to speak, when I got the Max P coins. I only saw two of them in three years of spending DMs. I guess people must have taken them all out of ciculation - not sure why, though.

 

They used something called Magnimat - basically the same Cu75 Ni25 alloy but with a pure nickel core. This was also used for the later series (mid-70s to mid-90s) of 5 DM circulation coins.

The Planck 2 DM pieces were taken out of circulation in 1973. You could and can still exchange them at the central bank, though, so maybe a few circulated a little longer

Christian

 

Aha! That explains it. Igot them close to the end of the DM. I bet some people were clearing out their drawers for coins before the switch. I bet they might not have worked in vending machines if they were a diffeent compositon. Maybe that is why they were withdrawn. Of course, here in Germany vending machines of most types found in the US (Coke, candy, etc.) are not neary as common (but some are more common, such as train trickets, etc.)

 

The most interesting West German commemorative 5 DM is the one dated 1983,which commemorates the death centenary of Karl Marx,who is regarded as the 'Father of Communism'.Karl Marx is buried in the Highgate Cemetery in London,England.

Aidan.

 

Whether that is the most interesting one is a matter of personal preference but it's not a silver piece. Commems from those years (Otto Hahn 1979 - Frederick the Great 1986) were made of CuNi (Magnimat) like the regular 2 and 5 DM coins.

Christian

 

Did they circulate? I never saw one. Not sure why the Westies issued a commie commem either. Seesm odd.

I didn't realize that Marx was buried in the UK. I did have a flat warm beer in the pub where he used to hang out across from the Brit Museum.

 

They "circulated" as much as the other commems - sort of, but not really As you can always buy the German collectors coins at face value, some people get a couple from a bank, pick the best one(s) for their collection and spend the rest. The typical reaction from a store cashier will then be "Huh?", followed by "Oh, I need to ask the manager whether we accept that" or "Hey, that's neat" ...

As for Karl Marx, he was born in Trier and worked in what today is Germany for a fairly long time. Of course he was a controversial character, but that also applies to people like Heinrich der Löwe (Henry the Lion?) who was equally honored on a coin ... As for Marx, even if you study economics these days, you will have to read quite a lot from and about him. Guess it's rather his analyses of the society he lived in, and his impact in the 19th century, that made the (then conservative) German federal government issue that coin.

Christian

 

Let's see......worked in Germany a long time.....controversial character....studying requires reading about him.....big impact on his century.....

When can we expect an Adolf Hitler commemorative euro? Maybe it can be a joint issue with Poland, France, etc.

I still say Marx was a VERY controversial choice. Then again, maybe the Europeans are knowledgebale enought to figure that his brand of commie-ism was not what the Soviets ended up with. In the US it all seems to blend in, but of course Lenin and then Stalin put their own mark on things. I am not sure Karl would have approved of their way of doing things.

 

Judging from the other parts of your reply, you don't really expect a comment on that bit ;-) Suffice it to say that yes, even very conservative politicians or historians, at least in most of Europe, see the two in very different categories, of course.

Interesting by the way that in that year (1983) both the Federal Republic and the GDR (East G.) had both Karl Marx and Martin Luther commems. And the officially atheist GDR issued one Marx coin but four Luther coins then ...

Christian