Hamburg 1888-J 2 mark
This specimen was lot 6203 in Künker sale 354 (Osnabrück, Germany, September 2021), where it sold for €1,200 (about US$1,670 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"REICHSSILBERMÜNZEN, HAMBURG, Freie und Hansestadt. 2 Mark 1888. J. 61. Seltener Jahrgang. Fast Stempelglanz. (Germany, free city of Hamburg, two mark of 1888, rare date, about uncirculated.)"
Hamburg, on the North Sea, was one of two imperial free cities permitted a continued existence under the Empire of 1871; Bremen was the other. She struck silver two, three and five mark and gold ten and twenty mark until that Empire's collapse in 1918. The Hamburg mint is still in operation, striking coins for the Federal Republic of Germany. This type was struck 1876-78, 1880, 1883 and 1888.
Recorded mintage: 100,000.
Specification: 11.11 g, 0.900 fine silver, reeded edge.
Catalog reference: KM 604, J. 61.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- 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.
- [1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Künker Auktion 354: Munzen und Medaillen aus Mittelalter und Neuzeit u. a. Braunschweig-Luneburg. Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2021.
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