Definately interesting!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=110201792257

Went way higher than what I expected though. I tried looking for another example but it looks to be more scarce than I originally thought.

That is rather interesting, thanks for the link

That's a neat coin.

I had no idea they overstruck the German 10 pf coins, which were still then current in Germany.

Yep, these 10 pf pieces were legal tender in Germany (Western occupation zones) until 1-Apr-1949, in Austria until 1-Feb-1949. But I suppose those swastika pieces were not exactly popular any more, and other material may have been difficult to get. Don't collect error pieces, but that one is interesting!

Christian

I imagine that inflation had pretty much rendered them pretty much valueless by 1948-1949, when the switchover to the DM started at 10:1. I still think it is remarkable that the swastika currency lasted in circulation up to that time, especially in the Russian zone without being overprinted, or even having a validation stamp over the swastika to eliminate the symbol. Sometime I want to find the Bank Deutscher Lander banknotes from 1948-1949 in nice condition, they are interesting.

Hehe, the German Empire 1 Reichspfennig zinc coins (1940-1946, with and without swastika) were legal tender in Austria even until the end of February 2002. Practically that did not matter though, due to their low value: One of them was worth 1 Groschen, ie. 1/100 Schilling - and in € terms, 1 Schilling is about 7.3 Cent.

Christian

I doubt many without the swastika ever circulated for long, they are quite a bit scarcer. The 1944 is the best date in this series, but the prices for them are ridiculous. The curious thing is about the 1944 date, except for a very small bridgehead in December of 1944 I don't believe the Allies occupied any part of Germany containing a mint. So the coin must have been back dated but minted later in 1945.

One of the interesting things with the demise of the 3rd Reich was that in Gross Deutschland there was every effort to keep life as normal, meaning coins were minted right up to the end, postage stamps were released just before Berlin fell to the Soviets etc. In that way the authorities attempted to hide how bad things were from the main population, but really that didn't work.

That is because they are not quite part of the series. Only Munich made them - very few, and only between late May and mid June 1945 - by merely removing the swastika from the hub. The "actual" series, with three denominations dated 1945-48, had an eagle with a tail instead of the swastika, and redesigned claws ...

Christian

Now I want to know if this is extremely rare or common - either by mint mischief or a fair amount of them were remelted down later on.

Those should be a bit scarce, a few months ago a Austrian dealer had a 5 Gr. struck on a 5 Pf. on Ebay and it went for a nice two figure ammount as i recall.

Jose

it si not very expensive