Germany 1914-J 1/2 mark
This specimen was lot 3113 in Stephen Album sale 50 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2024), where it did not sell. The catalog description[1] noted, "GERMANY: Kaiserreich, AR 1/2 mark, 1914-J, attractive light peripheral tone, better date/mintmark, NGC graded MS65." This coin is a silver half mark from a type issued 1905-19 from the Berlin (mintmark "A"), Munich (mintmark "D"), Muldenhutten (mintmark "E"), Stuttgart (mintmark "F"), Karlsruhe (mintmark "G") and Hamburg (mintmark "J", shown here) mints. Under the German Empire of 1871-1918, the denominations of two mark and up were permitted for the formerly independent principalities while the lower denominations (one pfennig thru one mark) were minted to a unified design. The pre-war silver half marks are not rare but the 1914-19 issues were almost completely hoarded, making them common today in all grades.
Recorded mintage: 2,292,000, a slightly better date.
Specification: 2.77 g, 0.900 fine silver, 20 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-17.
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- Jaeger, Kurt, Die Deutschen Münzen seit 1871, Basel: Münzen und Medaillen AG, 1982.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 50, featuring selections from the Dr. Robert A. Rosenfeld Collection, the Hakim Hamidi Collection, the Almer H. Orr III Collection and the Solar Collection, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
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