Porcelain coins

[Figleaf]

Porcelain is not a good material for coins, even though modern porcelain is much harder than traditional porcelain. It breaks quickly, but other wear is more limited than metals, as this token shows.

The token is a 2 centavos 1921 from the amusingly named Portuguese town of Gaia. Do you have any porcelain tokens to show?

Peter

[chrisild]

Don't have any myself. But the Meissen porcelain factory in Saxony made a couple of pieces in the 1920s, as Notgeld for various places in Germany. Here is a porcelain coin from Amberg, Bavaria:


(Image: vcoins.com)

Right, unfortunately porcelain coins are fairly fragile ...

Christian

[translateltd]

I have a porcelain gambling token somewhere, plus a "full set" of German denominations from Meissen in the original case - which rather suggests they were made for collectors rather than circulation, back in 1921!  Next time I find them I'll do a photo.

I find it interesting that the German ones generally are not glazed so don't have the "china" look of the Portuguese token illustrated, or my Asian gambling piece.

[Figleaf]

Looking forward to those pictures, Martin. I have a German porcelain token up my sleeve. If it's not in your set, I'll post it here. I have indeed read more than once that the Meissen tokens were "collector's items".

Those Asian gambling tokens are often very nice. Like yours, mine are floating around somewhere among my earthly possessions. I guess our problem is you don't want to keep them with the coins, as they are so much more fragile.

Peter

[chrisild]

Here is a collector who has or presents a wide range of porcelain coins and tokens. Most were made by Meissen but he shows a few others too.

http://www.notgeld.sewera.pl/
(Site in Polish and German)

There are also a few pieces which are made from other materials, such clay, quartz and graphite. He also writes that the porcelain pieces were not used that much but primarily collected.

Christian

[translateltd]

Looking forward to those pictures, Martin. I have a German porcelain token up my sleeve. If it's not in your set, I'll post it here. I have indeed read more than once that the Meissen tokens were "collector's items".

Never saw this reply until this morning - it didn't show under "Show new posts" at all!

Pics:

[Figleaf]

Surprisingly strong designs! I have the impression that I have seen the harvester on the 10 mark somewhere else. If I only had a memory ...

Mine is from Peine and it illustrates an amusing history, first related in 1563. An owl had been trapped in a barn. In the dark, you could only see its ghost-like eyes and hear its voice "schuhu, schuhu, schuhu!", which became the name of the "monster". The citizens of Peine were quite alarmed but dared not approach, so in the end they set fire to the four corners of the barn.

Since that time, the owl was a symbol of the stupidity of the people of Peine. They therefore developed alternative stories. In some of these stories, the owl cries out when enemy infantry tries to climb the city walls unnoticed, alarming the defenders and saving the city. The motto of the city became: "Peine was maket so feste, dat de Ule blev sitten inn Neste!" - What makes Peine so strong is that the owl remained on its nest.

Peter

[translateltd]

I have a large bronze Notgeld piece from Peine, also denominated in "Kippermünze" that has that legend on it. I never knew the story behind it though.

[translateltd]

... and I found it, after not *too* much searching (wish I could say the same for many other items).

And to keep on-topic, I also include pics of a porcelain piece from Leipzig, also with the Meissen crossed swords "mintmark", which appears to be a medallic item, in the absence of any denomination.

[chrisild]

In another topic Peter mentioned this one, particularly the use of the owl. Unfortunately the link to the story is broken, but you can view or download a brochure in German about the Peine Owl here. The brochure also features the piece that translateltd showed us here, plus some notgeld note.

Christian

[Ukrainii Pyat]

Neat thread, but now it makes me want to dig out my Saxony porcelain pieces to peruse over again.

[Figleaf]

That's the risk of a lively coin forum

I realize only now that the crossed swords (?) logo on Martin's box is also on the Peine and Leipzig pieces. Some corporate logo?

Peter

[chrisild]

Not just "some".   http://www.meissen.com/

Christian

[Ukrainii Pyat]

I believe some people think the porcelain coins were used in commerce in the 1920's in Germany, in reality they were more donation receipts/souvenirs - a lot of notgeld paper would fall into the same category which is why it is preserved so well.  As interesting as the porcelains are, they don't have quite the themes that some of the paper notgeld did:



I just wanna know where I can buy a ducat defecating donkey for my backyard

[Afrasi]

Well example! 

Translation:

A ducats shitting donkey / we Paderborners (Paderborn is a town in Germany) don't have,
but there are donkeys enough in the world, / who buy our paper money.