In January Germany will issue a €10 collectors coin dedicated to the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born 250 years ago then. The side with the eagle I find quite interesting. And the other side - well, the portrait is good, but I wonder if the regular (non-proof) version can stay free from scratches for very long ...

Christian

Wow. Thats a pretty coin. I love the side with the eagle. But the other side has a lot of open space and it does make the coin vulnerable to scratches.

I agree that the Eagle is innovative. The extra scrolls -- planets on a musical staff? -- take away from the bird, but I like the Eagle.

Mozart is underdeveloped. Surely, some kind of tribute could have been designed that honors his many great works. The profiled head on a coin could be anyone, Schopenhauer, Humboldt, Pius IX, who knows? Even a new and accurate representation based on the few known portraits would have been all right.

Mozart was a Freemason, by the way, and some people suggest that his Marriage of Figaro was part of the Enlightened conspiracy against church and state. Make a coin of out that!

Yes, those lines are supposed to be staves. The stars are the twelve stars from the European Flag which also appear on all euro circulation coins, except that here they are aligned like notes. As for Mozart's portrait, well, it appears to be a little "flat", especially his hair. But I think he can be recognized :-)

Interestingly the designer of this piece is Jordi Regel who is also responsible for one of the worst (IMO) German commems: the TV coin from 2002 ...

Christian

Shouldn't the austrians have done this?



Looks like Beethoven... Perhaps they added wrong legend on the coin?

Heck, I'll just admire the Eagle side of this coin.

Maybe they will issue a coin on that occasion too :-) Both present Austria and present Germany have been part of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries. Mozart was born in Salzburg which at that time was part of that empire, so why should not both AT and DE honor him with a coin?

A similar case is Bertha von Suttner, by the way: Mozart is depicted on the Austrian €1 circulation coin, she is on the regular €2 piece. This year Germany issues a €10 collector coin because 100 years ago she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, I don't think she ever lived in what is now Germany - but after her death she was cremated and her ashes rest in Gotha, TH, DE.

There are several similar cases - think of Copernicus (honored on both German and Polish coins), Beethoven (German and Austrian coins), Einstein (German, Swiss ...). And let's not even think of Charlemagne

Christian

It kind of makes up for many previous dull or just butt ugly eagles ...

Christian

There are many non-orthadox features to this coin.: already mentioned is the eagle, which breaks with much of the past stylizations, the date of his life being placed at the top is also quite against tradition.




Perhaps the reason for the empty field at the left? Mozart is watching the telly!

The Mozart coin will be available as from Monday (2 Jan). If anybody is interested in getting one, let me know. Problem is that the "uncirculated" coins we can get from the banks here come in rolls - and the Mozart piece has a huge empty area ...

Christian

Christian, if you have the opportunity to pick the coins yourself and get some nice ones (not too baggy), I'll be happy to trade ya for an "Australië" and a "Rembrandt"

the eagle kinda looks like a turkey ... but it still looks good (and it does make up for previous very dull eagles).

Christian,

I would be interested in buying one if possible, and thank you for the offer.

How could I turn it down?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have here in my hands the very first German "2006" coins.

Since the local Bundesbank branch is just a few subway stations away from here, I grabbed some Mozart €10 pieces today, on the first day of issue. Erik, Ray, Tiff wanted one each, right? You'll get PMs later. The guy at the counter was nice; he ligned up several coins in front of me (knew where to hold them, and where not), and I could pick the ones I wanted.

Well, I am a little disappointed by the Mozart portrait. As I wrote before, it appeared to be a little flat on the pictures ... and the coins do actually not have a high relief. But the coin as a whole is not bad - especially the eagle with the "vivid" staves looks interesting.

Christian

Too late to sign on for the Mozart Commem?

Not really. That is, I don't have any "left" right now, but can pretty easily get more later this week.

Christian

Yay!!

count me in, please!

(i wish u.s. commems were handled this way ... )

Count me in too. May want to work out a deal for two nicer type sets of Euro coins from Deutschland for my nippers also.

Yes, and I wish I could go in and buy a silver $10 coin at the bank, it has an oz of silver in it, I get it for face value and I really like the design. But not going to put my hand on my bum or it will grow there, remember we are talking USA mint here.

Lessee ... the ones for Trantor_3, Ray and Tiffibunny I have; the ones for henare and Ukraina Dvi I'll get later this week.

And yes, I sure like the "price" of these coins. Silver euros being available at face value can be found in a few other countries too. The Netherlands come to my mind, also Austria (most issues), Portugal, Spain (only some issues). In other countries (Belgium, France, Italy) it's pretty much the same as the US: The price you pay for a silver piece, even if you buy directly from the mint, is much higher than the face value.

That does of course not mean the Dutch/German/... silver coins actually occur in everyday life. To a very limited extent maybe; but if I take one to a store, I sometimes hear "No, we do not accept those". Others will accept €10 coins without any problems, but you hardly get one back in circulation. Plus (or rather minus), I cannot use a German collector coin in the non-German parts of Euroland and the other way round. That works only with the circulation coins and the €2 commems.

Christian

I remember spending silver 10 DM coins in the DM era though, never had a problem with them, most people looked at me like I was crazy for spending the Munchen commems. For me as a foreigner, it was a novelty, I had never spent silver coins before. It was unusual to have a silver coin with a value greater than the silver in it.

Wonderful, thanks Christian

Dvi/Dave,

for some reason I cannot send you a PM. http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?showtopic=6482
So here is a "public copy" of what I wrote to henare. Hope you see this:

Sorry, getting the additional Mozart coins has taken a while, but tomorrow morning I can pick some up. Problem is that shipping has become a little expensive. Deutsche Post now charges €3 for mailing a letter of the "padded envelope" type to the US. Still interested? Let me know ...

Christian