The inevitable has happened

Well, I always knew this day could come, so here it is:

I have found a foreign coin series that I like. I may end up spending some time in the dark side. Of course, the last series I decided I liked (Ikes) have seemed to loose their "luster", so I am still unsure.

Anyway, the coins are imperial german one and half marks. I just like the design with the eagle and stuff. Anyone want to show me their's?

 

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Awwwww yeahhhh! Excellent choice Numis-addict!!
My favorite foreign series.
The designs are amazing. You get the benefit of them being silver as well.
I suggest you start with a year set. The year/mm set can get very expensive.
I am working on toned year set for both.

Here are some of mine.

 

A bit of a different take on the imperial eagle, this by Karl Goetz is a pattern from 1908:

 

Here is one sent to me by Chrisild a few years ago:

 

Beautiful 1 Marks Greg! I have a 1/2 Mark I picked up several weeks ago, it's a real beater however

 

Gosh those coins are BEAUTIFUL!!! I love the intricacies and painstaking craftsmanship that obviously went into those dies. Props all around!

 

Actualy, it was your pictures that brought my eye to the series.

Awsome coins dude.

 

I'm lucky enough to be stationed over here in Germany right now and have fallen for the Imperial era of German coinage. It started with the 1 Mark but the spread to 1/2 since I started coming across them pretty often. Soon I was collecting 2, 3, and 5 Marks as well. I have been focusing mostly on the 1 Marks from 1891 to 1916 the most in a year and make set. A few of them are pretty pricey, one is just out of reach. I will be satisfied with the set missing the top two price wise though. I don't know if I will be here long enough to finish the 1873-1887 1 Mark set by year and make. I have 17 coins left in the 91-16 set that is about 120 coins.

Once you get out of the 1/2 and 1 Mark coins and start looking at the 2, 3, and 5 Mark coins it branches out pretty quick. In those denominations it was easy to get distracted so I focused on the Berlin area for no better reason than that is the area my family came from a few hundred years ago.

I think I have 50 or so extra duplicate 1 Mark coins, if you want a few let me know. I have never looked for them stateside so don't know how easy they are to find there so I keep my eye open when I am traveling over here.

 

That's awesome Mike.
I agree once you start drifting into the 2,3, and 5 mark arena, things can escalate quickly. especially once you gaze upon all the beautiful marks from the MANY German states. I stuck to Wuertemberg right now. Then it's onto something else.

As far as finding the marks stateside, it's pretty easy. Well, on ebay that is. However finding quality ones, especially toned is not an easy task over here. 99% of what I bought are straight from Germany or other European countries. My latest group (which I have been patiently waiting 3 weeks for) are coming from Romania.

-greg

 

well, now I need information on the series. All I could find was people trying to sell them to me, so, any idea where I can get some info? Mintages, mints, the whole lot.

 

You can always start with KM books. Always good to have for all world coin info. If you are really serious about them, I would track down a specialty book. However, KM will get you in the ballpark with mintages and relative rarity.

Welcome to the wider world of coins OP. I am sure it will not be your last foray into them. I was a bored US collector 15 years ago when I bought my first two ancient, a Parthian silver and a Larissa bronze. I have bought very few US coins since.

 

As Medorman said before, the KM books are good for info but forget the prices being accurate.

 

so, no website? I guess it would be hard to compile that much info...

 

Congratulations. I've been getting an itchy trigger finger as well. I was checking out somone's albums and just fell in love with spanish colonial reales. When I get some positive cash flow comming in I'm going to pay a visit to darth vador.

 

Numis, you can look on the NGC website under world coin price guide and that will give you some mintages if I remember right and get you in the ballpark price wise to a certain extent. It is kind of a pain to navigate but will give you some info. A coin shop over here gave me a sheet like what the gray list is in the US but I will have to look for it. It was very accurate and came out monthly. Chrisild is the one who would be able to give the most accurate info from Germany I would think. He is an experienced German coin guru and well, he is German I believe.

 

Well, can someone at least tell me what the mintmarks are and what cities they corospond to?

 

A - Berlin
D - Munich
E - Muldenhutten
F - Stuttgart
G - Karlsruhe
J - Hamburg

Generally Berlin will have the highest mintage...

 

No problem:

A - Berlin
B - Hannover
C - Frankfurt
D - Munich
E - Muldenhuttne
F - Stuttgart
G - Karlsrugh
H - Darmstadt
J - Hamburg

The B, C, and H were only used on the "small eagle" 73-87 1 mark coins, the rest were used in some volume from 73-16 for the "small and large eagle" 1 mark coins.

(Sorry Gbroke, we must have been typing at the same time. Did not mean to duplicate your effort.)

 

Umm, NGC also lists a "B", "C", and "H" for some dates.