The German 5-Mark
Another Bygone ‘Silver Dollar’
Anyone who has been collecting for some time, and who has looked into foreign coins, has invariably come across one or two of the imperial German 5-mark coins from before the First World War. They get labeled a crown-sized coin and basically functioned in Germany much like a silver dollar did in the U.S. But the entire set can often be a bit confusing, since there seems to be a veritable herd of royal, bearded gentlemen on the obverse who can be tough to tell apart. Let’s clear up the confusion, and in the process see if there might be some bargains among this series of big silver.
Why So Many Royals?
When it comes to most series of coins that sport one royal face or another, we are used to a single king or queen succeeding the one who came before – Great Britain serving as a prime example. It makes for a clean set of dividing lines for any denomination and any series. But with Germany, there are several kings, princes and dukes all on the big silver (and gold) coins issued at the same time, starting shortly after the unification in 1871. The reason why is part of one of the biggest political compromises of history. Putting it briefly, to weld an empire from a collection of states, each nobleman would get to keep his titles, and keep his face on the local coins, if he would declare Wilhelm I to be the emperor. In the process, all coins were standardized – the 5-mark pieces now being just a tad bigger than our silver dollars, weighing in at 27.7778 grams, or 0.804 ounces of 90 percent silver. And with this as just one compromise among many, an empire was born.
Who Were the Big Players? The Common Faces
With this in mind, we still have to ask what the common pieces are in this set. As with every other series we’ve looked at, U.S. or otherwise, common means those coins produced in the largest number. Unlike other series, common here tends to correspond to the biggest lands that were part of the newly unified Empire. That puts Prussia on the top of the list, followed closely by Bavaria. Saxony and Baden are two others that were big enough that they saw some years of big production as well.
United States coinage has plenty of monthly and even weekly price lists. When it comes to these big silver 5-mark pieces, it’s a bit tougher to find a price list that is all encompassing and rapidly updated. But between the Standard Catalog of World Coins and some visits to the never-ending sales venue that is eBay, we find that $100 still goes a long way when it comes to purchasing any of these. It will cost more if we want Mint State examples. But if we can tolerate a bit of wear – usually on one royal beard or another – there are plenty of instances in which we can score a Prussian or Bavarian piece that still looks quite handsome. Assembling these can easily become the backbone of a fascinating collection, rich with history. Trying to assemble date runs from the 1870s until the demise of the denomination at the outset of World War I can be a challenge, but a fun one. And the price tag we just mentioned is not bad at all, especially when we compare it to those for Morgan dollars, the U.S. counterpart of the time.
The Smaller Players
Moving from the 5-mark coins of the larger German states to the smaller can be an enormous expansion in scope, depending on how complete a collection we intend to make. Attempting to land just one from each of the smaller principalities and duchies could be expensive, but strangely, not because of some direct correlation to rarity. That may sound odd, but keep in mind that the collector base for classic German coins in the U.S. is not overly large, and so even some of the smaller issues are not automatically expensive. It’s just a matter of finding them. Picking just one example, the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was very small compared to its nearby neighbor Prussia. And it only produced a 5-mark piece in 1895. Today that piece is always more expensive than the common ones of the big states, but not absurdly so. In fact, we could argue that the only reason it commands a premium is because one gent from there – a man named Albert – ended up marrying a woman most world coin collectors know very well, a young lady named Victoria. Yes, the couple became the Victoria and Albert known so well, in Great Britain and elsewhere.
Before leaving the subject of small German lands that issued 5-mark pieces, it is worth mentioning a trio that never had a royal portrait on them. These are the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck. There are 5-mark pieces for each of these cities, with Hamburg having gotten in the game before the other two. Hamburg also appears to have pounded out more 5-mark pieces than Bremen or Lübeck. And once again, if we don’t mind examples that have circulated a bit, the prices are not bad at all. In this case $150 can be the buy-in point for a neat silver-dollar-sized coin that is also an interesting piece of history.
Overall
Although we usually focus on one series of U.S. coin or another, this is not the first foray we’ve taken into the coins of a foreign land. When it comes to Germany, it appears that its relatively short-lived imperial past does have some bargains to offer. It might just be worth keeping an eye on these big pieces, just to see when those from the “little” lands make their appearances, and do so at decent prices. There do seem to be a few bargains in this crowd of royal faces. ◆