1875 German Empire 1 Pfennig Date Varieties

neildrobertson

As I take more high resolution photos of my coins, some of the differences are starting to stand out more. I just made this composite image from a number of 1875 1 pfennig coins. The dates are all going to be slightly different depending on where the coin was minted. The difference is most notable with the last '5' digit. This isn't the only difference from this era. Other lettering on the coin can vary from mint to mint. . This sort of variety information on German Empire coins isn't published anywhere except for a fairly exhaustive evaluation on the 1 Mark coins from 1891-1916. There isn't much on any of the other denominations/types, so I figured I should post this. This sort of comparison is useful if you are trying to verify the authenticity of a key date like 1877-B or 1873-D. While I haven't tried to do it myself yet, I suspect that one could say what mint a coin came from without actually looking at the mintmark itself.

Edit: I updated the image with all of the mintmarks and the 2 Pfennig.
I believe including the 2 Pfennig debunks the idea that there's consistency across denominations, even if they are a lot more worn.

TitusFlavius

Interesting. Do you know how dies of the period were manufactured/distributed? I'm only familiar with the United States, where all dies were made at Philadelphia, with branch mint dies then being shipped to the appropriate mint.

coinkat

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing your interest in this series. This does seem to be an area that needs further exploration. As for the One Mark coins, I was not aware that any type of a definitive work had been done. I still have many questions as to surviving populations of various coins within the series.

Oldhoopster

Very interesting discovery. I collect German Empire by date and mm but never noticed the difference. Have you looked at the date style for for other dates/denominations of early empire coins?

I'll check mine out when I can access them. I just had rotator cuff surgery and it will be a few weeks until I can do so

neildrobertson

@coinkat said:
Excellent post. Thanks for sharing your interest in this series. This does seem to be an area that needs further exploration. As for the One Mark coins, I was not aware that any type of a definitive work had been done. I still have many questions as to surviving populations of various coins within the series.

Here is a link to the book:
https://www.battenberg-gietl.de/sammeln/buch/1-mark-jaeger-17

It is in German, and it may not have answers to all questions. It is still the best thing of its kind I've seen. I don't speak German, but I have built up enough German numismatic vocabulary that I can stumble my way through a catalog. I google translate spots that I think I might find interesting.

neildrobertson

@Oldhoopster said:
Very interesting discovery. I collect German Empire by date and mm but never noticed the difference. Have you looked at the date style for for other dates/denominations of early empire coins?

I'll check mine out when I can access them. I just had rotator cuff surgery and it will be a few weeks until I can do so

I haven't checked any others yet. I was noticing the differences in dates between my 1914 1 Mark coins and was curious if there would be date differences in earlier coins of a different denomination, which is what prompted me to try 1875 1 pfennig. I'm curious to see if there is continuity in the style of lettering/numbers they use from denomination to denomination and year to year as well. I might try my 1875 2 pfennigs next.

My book suggests that the thousands and hundreds position of the date was pretty consistent across the mints on the 1 Marks, but my photos on the 1 pfennig seem to indicate that all of the digits vary between my coins.

YQQ

Try calling Guy Franquinet... he is the "go to guy".
he speaks English