What's up plebs?
I recently got a new pair of phones for me and my wife, nothing fancy, just two budget motorola (moto g23) as we both have been happy customers of the brand.
All in all, super happy with the phone but there was one thing I hadn't tried yet..till today. And that was it's camera.
Got some free time today and figured to put it to the test. So I pulled a random silver coin from the pile of coins I have yet to make a post about...
And today's lucky draw is...
Looks like I pulled a sexy Theodor Fontane!
Chances are you have heard of him here or there, but if not the tldr is that Fontanewas a German novelist and poet consideres by many as the most important German-language realist author of the 19th century.
Fontane is known as a writer of realism, not only because he was conscientious about the factual accuracy of details in fictional scenes, but also because he depicted his characters in terms of what they said or did and refrained from overtly imputing motives to them. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known today, only at age 58 after a career as a journalist. source
Yeah, short of a big deal in his field 馃槃
As you are about to see in the next photos, this is a 5 mark German coin minted in 1969, in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary since his birth in 30 December 1819.
As is the case with all the commemorative Deutsche marks I have been showing you, this one features a unique design of the imperial eagle, symbol of Germany, and this one is really cool looking is you ask me!
We have an engraved edge as well 馃槏
In German it reads
DER FREIE - NUR IST TREU
For
The Free - Only is True
This is a quote from Fontane's epic novel Der Stechlin, published in 1898, which is Fontane's second longest novel, and his last novel published before he died.
When it comes to silver, this is a small piece with a weight of 11.2 g and a purity of 0.625. That's about 7 g of silver, or 5.6$ in melting value with today's spot price at 0.8$ per g.
Here are some more boring semantics from numista in case you care:
Issuer: Federal Republic of Germany
Period: Federal Republic (1949-date)
Type: Non-circulating coin
Diameter: 29 mm
Thickness: 2.07 mm
Technique: Milled
Orientation: Medal alignment 鈫戔啈
Demonetized: 31 December 2001
All in all, a pretty standard silver commemorative coin. If you are a fan of German history & literature and want one I have good news for you. The coin is cheap and you can probably get it close to spot if you try enough :)
Ok friends, this is it for today! See you soon with more shiny silver 馃槉
Btw, a comment on my introduction. I think the photos came photos came up decent enough considering I use natural light. The day was really cloudy and I chose a really bad time with the sun coming down in a couple hours.
Fun Numismatics Posts
Enjoyed the post? Here is some more fun silver/numismatics themed content I have written in the past I think you will enjoy:
- The country that uses plastic coins!
- The bizarre coins of Cook Islands
- Infographic: What Type of Silver Whale are you?
- My silver pocket piece
- My favorite piece from the stack
- The 10 Million Dollar Coin
- This is where gold really comes from!
- That's one big nugget!
- The Ten Thousand Dollar Bill ?!?!
- Biggest Gold Coin Ever
- A coin made of cardboard
- The microorganism that poops gold!
- World's smallest gold coin
- Manchukuo's Fiber Coins from 1945