20 Marks

Matt91

Hey all!

I’ve got a 1913A and 1914A 20 Mark and was wanting to start collecting Prussia/other 20 marks and was wondering why the greater value is placed on say the 1875 Heinrich XXII vs 1915 Wilhelm II 20 Mark? I’m guessing it has to do with the mintages of 1875 Heinrich XXII (KM 125) 1510 coins vs 1915 Wilhelm II (KM 537) 1.6 million 20 Mark Wilhelms. I’m a big fan of the reverses, they harken back to a time when men were men and sheep were scared. I’d like to collect the more rare and interesting absolute rarities vs conditional rarities.

Regards,

Matthew

Sapyx

As with all coins, value is a product of supply and demand. "Demand" is reasonably low - there aren't many people trying to collect "German Empire 20 mark gold coins by type". "Supply", on the other hand, is even lower: not only are the mintages of some of these coins quite low (as you've stated), but there's also the other factor that affects supply: survival rates.

Many of Germany's gold coins would have gone to foreign powers after WWI, to help pay down the war debt (which is, in turn, why the value of the post-war mark collapsed into hyperinflation). Those coins would have been melted down and recoined into the coins of other countries. Then you had the whole WWII-Nazi Rule thing happening a few decades later, followed by further internal displacements and partitioning into East and West. So the actual survival rates of German Imperial gold coins would be much lower than their mintage figures might indicate.

Matt91

I had a hunch that their numbers/values had something to do with the hyperinflation of the German Papiermark in the Weimar Republic.