Germany: 2021 Collector Coins

[quaziright]

While I'm catholic, it still begs the question, is this a joke? Why has the govt designated the year 2021 to wish Jesus happy birthday?

[chrisild]

Don't ask me. I am not religious, and guess they simply think this could be a big seller.   (Austria has done that before, several English language countries or territories do it ...) In my opinion this is not better or worse than those Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales pieces.

Christian

[redlock]

I thought about getting one next year. But the ''plate shape'' is a deal breaker for me.

[quaziright]

Don't ask me. I am not religious, and guess they simply think this could be a big seller.   (Austria has done that before, several English language countries or territories do it ...) In my opinion this is not better or worse than those Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales pieces.

Christian

Grimms brothers were German, so I can understand that as cultural heritage. The Austrians have for long had a traditional overtly religious bent. The christ coin here seems random and odd. Of course I will get one  (I would buy one even with a poop emoji on it because I have OCD, so i must I have the full series)

[chrisild]

This is the 2021 Fairy Tales coin. It features "Frau Holle" (see link in the initial post) and was designed by Jordi Truxa.

Christian

[chrisild]

Just added the (planned) dates of issue. The football (UEFA Euro 2020) coin may look odd at first sight; it will be issued in 2021 but with its originally planned 2020 date. That is also why I did not add the image (which is in the 2020 topic, link in first post) here.

Now this is certainly not the first time that a coin is issued that way. The very first collector coin from this country, the Germanisches Museum 5 DM piece dated 1952, came out in September 1953. The Munich Olympics 10 DM coins all refer to 1972, but some designs were issued in 1970 and 1971. The Otto Hahn coin (to be issued in silver in 1979) came out in Cu-Ni in September 1980, dated 1979, and so on.

So this is not all that unusual. But as we all know, this time the reason is a covidifferent one. Sports events such as the Tokyo Olympics, or this Euro Cup, will keep their original names too. So admittedly it would be strange if the coin was dated 2021 but refer to an event dated 2020 ...

Christian

[chrisild]

We have a new year but the same old pandemic  and Frau Holle suffers from that too: The collector coin with that theme was scheduled to be issued this month (see initial post) but will now come later. The Bundesbank branch offices - where such pieces can be had - are closed for individual customers these days; commercial banks are more likely to be open but prefer less customer contact too. And so ...

The surcharged prooflike version of the Frau Holle coin (€37.50) will be issued in time, so that collectors can get it in late Jan/early Feb. The unc version however, issued at face, will not be available until 22 April.

Christian

[chrisild]

The "Maus" coin (see reply #7) was of course featured in the Maus TV show.   Last month they had an episode which partly dealt with the piece – from the design to the production. I am not sure whether this can be viewed everywhere (could be georestricted) so try it out if you are interested.

Die Sendung mit der Maus (21 Feb 2021) – the part about the coin is roughly from 2:00 to 9:00.
https://www.wdrmaus.de/aktuelle-sendung/sendung_3.php5

Christian

[Figleaf]

FYI, I can get on the site, but I can't play the video. There is no error message, but the video part of the page remains black and there is no sound. Same if I toggle around the switches on the right or try an earlier broadcast.

Peter

[chrisild]

Thanks! Yes, that is why I mentioned the possible geo-restrictions; since I pay the German media/broadcast fee which supports those public networks, I don't have that problem. Some Maus videos can be watched on YouTube, and may or may not be restricted there, but I have not seen this one over there yet.

Well, imagine a short video about how the coin theme was decided upon, how the piece was designed, and how (later, at the mint) some "depth" was added. It shows the silver blanks, the edge inscription, a die, the actual minting process, how the color is added (see attached screenshot/s) ... and how, at the end, one guy uses the piece to buy at a store.

According to that video, the latter is no problem at all, ha – but at least they show, at the very end, how the cashier takes the coin out of the cash register "drawer" and puts a €20 bill in instead. (After all, it is a piece for collectors!) Most of these steps we have seen in other videos, about other coins, before.

Christian

[agoodall]

Can anyone tell me how the outer ring of the €10 Auf dem Wasser coin is coloured?

[chrisild]

For the design image see reply #3. I do not have that coin, but here for example a dealer sells a display, and put some apparently real pieces in there. Purchasing the pieces from Bundesbank branch offices is still not possible due to the pandemic, and I suppose it will take some time until the Numismatic Office (they have another image here) ships the surcharged version.

Christian

[agoodall]

Thank you Christian. What I'm curious about is what material the blue coloured ring is made from. I'd like it to be niobium but that is usually used for more expensive coins.

Andrew

[chrisild]

There actually is some niobium in the blue ring. But you are right, usually or primarily that is used in silver-niobium coins – and there is no silver in this one. You basically have a Cu-Ni central part, a translucent ring, and a colored Cu-Ni outer part.

A description of the composition in German is here; Google Translate should work ...
https://www.muenze-deutschland.de/muenzen-2021/auf-dem-wasser

Christian

[agoodall]

That's good, I like German coins and now I have an excuse to buy one! Google Translate did work well - I used to be able to read (but not speak) German, having been heavily involved in German phonecard collecting in the 1980s/1990s. It disappeared without practice though.

Andrew