Dave Rishar
Silver Member
Today, we hit the same park that turned up yesterday's gold. Imagine my excitement when my very first signal turned out what appeared to be an old chunk of silver, not ten steps inside the park. It wasn't until some of the dirt was removed and the research began that I became quite confused. Take a gander at this and tell me what's wrong with it. Don't worry about the little things like condition and such - look at the coin, preferably with a pic of a real deutschmark coin from that era in one of your browser's tabs for comparison. Spoilers under pictures.
Here's what I noticed:
1. There's no such thing as a 50 mark coin from that era. If there had been one, it would have had to have been gold. But it didn't exist, so we don't need to worry about this.
2. Wilhelm II was not the kaiser in 1878; his father, Wilhelm I, was in charge. Wilhelm II came into power in 1888.
3. Wilhelm's hair looks different than it does on actual coins bearing his likeness. It's the same style, but is a bit more cartoony.
4. The coin was awfully heavy for silver. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be electroplated copper or brass.
So it's a fake - not a big deal. But here's the really odd thing...go ahead and try to find something out about these online. I mean, it's not like only one or two were ever made, right? We went and looked and are even more confused than before. They're not for sale on E-bay, they're not being discussed on the usual forums...the only thing that we found was a discussion from a German numismeric forum from 2006 where an example that sounded like mine was discussed as being a fake.
And why fake this at all? The real 1878 coins are not particularly expensive. Perhaps it was some kind of commemorative to Wilhelm II, but then why get the date wrong?
It's a a head-scratcher, but I've never seen anything like it before. I'll take it.
Here's what I noticed:
1. There's no such thing as a 50 mark coin from that era. If there had been one, it would have had to have been gold. But it didn't exist, so we don't need to worry about this.
2. Wilhelm II was not the kaiser in 1878; his father, Wilhelm I, was in charge. Wilhelm II came into power in 1888.
3. Wilhelm's hair looks different than it does on actual coins bearing his likeness. It's the same style, but is a bit more cartoony.
4. The coin was awfully heavy for silver. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be electroplated copper or brass.
So it's a fake - not a big deal. But here's the really odd thing...go ahead and try to find something out about these online. I mean, it's not like only one or two were ever made, right? We went and looked and are even more confused than before. They're not for sale on E-bay, they're not being discussed on the usual forums...the only thing that we found was a discussion from a German numismeric forum from 2006 where an example that sounded like mine was discussed as being a fake.
And why fake this at all? The real 1878 coins are not particularly expensive. Perhaps it was some kind of commemorative to Wilhelm II, but then why get the date wrong?
It's a a head-scratcher, but I've never seen anything like it before. I'll take it.
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