Can you help me to indentify this coin please?

MWallace

I don't collect foreign coins per se. I have this coin in my collection because it was used as a dog tag by a man who served in the US Army for 30 years and was a veteran of the Spanish American War, the Mexican Border Campaign, and World War I.



Can someone help me by identifying this coin as to Country, Denomination, Material, and years struck.



Thank you.

ajaan

Prussian. Silver. 5 Marks? What's the size?

Dawg144

What an awesome piece of history! The host coin seems to be a larger Prussian silver coin minted some time between 1891 and 1912. The overall design is consistent with the denominations of 2 Mark, 3 Mark, and 5 Mark pieces, though the relative size of the "A" mintmark (for Berlin) suggests it's most likely a 2 Mark coin. A measurement of the coin's diameter would confirm which denomination it is, as well as the exact range of mintage dates.

Some more basic information on these: The obverse inscription stands for "Wilhelm II Deutscher Kaiser König von Preussen" meaning "Wilhelm II, German Emperor, King of Prussia." These were struck in 90% silver. The authority to mint coins in the German Empire was delegated in an interesting way. Small denominations 1 Mark and below were minted by the central government, whereas denominations larger than 1 Mark (such as this piece) were left to the individual states.

OldEastside

early 20th century.....prior to ww1

Steve

curious to the dog tagged other side

MWallace

About 27mm

MWallace

Here is the other side. Information on Sgt. Phipps can be found

HERE and HERE.

Dawg144

2 Mark coins have a catalogued diameter of 28mm, so that's most likely what you're looking at. These were minted most years 1891-1912.

OldEastside

Originally posted by: MWallace
Here is the other side. Information on Sgt. Phipps can be found
HERE and HERE.

Thanks, I love history like this

Steve

MWallace

Thank you all.

ProofArtworkonCircs

Note that the coin has two forms of writing titles. - German Emperor as versus King of Prussia.
There was a lot of debate as to exactly what the title of the emperor would be. The use of the adjective, German, rather than the noun sounds weaker in both English and German.

lordmarcovan

There's another great piece of WW1 "trench art"!



Now that I've ended up with three pieces, more seem to turn up around every corner and tempt me into making a small subset of these within my "Oddball" collection of engraved coins.



Yours is awesome, not only because of the known backstory (wow, a Silver Star decorated doughboy!) but also because of the German host coin.



Did Sgt. Phipps find it on a dead German before having it engraved? Or acquire it from a live one, perhaps in a swap with a German POW?



I prefer the somewhat friendlier second scenario, but either could've happened, or any of several other scenarios.



What a great piece of history. Collecting these is timely, too, with the centenary of the great Western Front battles of WW1 upon us now.

YQQ

Originally posted by: ProofArtworkonCircs
Note that the coin has two forms of writing titles. - German Emperor as versus King of Prussia.

Fact is that he was actually Emeror of the whole Germany and King of the Province of Prussia.
he had TWO titles