This coin has some really nice toning on the crest and displays near mint condition all over. The strike is clean and the details are strong. It was issued in the first year after the Kaiserreich mostly referred to as the German Empire or Austro-Hungarian Empire began.
Scheide münzen or fractional money was a coinage that represented a set portion of one full thaler. The word Thaler would later become Daler and then a little later again became the word Dollar.
This lovely example of a 3 Pfennige coin displays on the obverse 120 One Thaler.
This denotes that there were 120 of these 3 Pfennige coins required to make up one full thaler. With these types of coins the inner coin metal value was lower than their legally imprinted nominal value.
Within the series produced were four denominations:
1 pfenninge had the value of 1/360th of a thaler
2 pfenninge had the value of 1/180th of a thaler
3 pfenninge had the value of 1/120th of a thaler
4 pfenninge had the value of 1/90th of a thaler
The coin on offer here may only be a fractional coin but the value of it has risen quite a bit over the years. It makes a fantastic addition to any collection of coinage from this period.
Design
1868A Brandenburg-Prussian Scheide Münze
Value: 3 Pfennige
Material: Copper
Weight: 4,60 g
Catalogue: AKS 106 – Jaeger 52
Mints: A- Berlin B- Bayreuth C- Cleve
History
When the coin on offer here was produced that same year saw the birth of Dr. Hugo Eckener a man who would become widely famous for his role in aviation history.
He was in fact to become the manager of the Luftschiffbau or airship construction plant for Zeppelin. He was also the commander of the very famous Graf Zeppelin which set the history books on fire with multiple record setting flights. These records began in 1928 with the first intercontinental passenger airship flight, then in the following year of 1929 by the first ever flight around the world by an airship. The first flight to circumnavigate the world was in 1924 was completed using 4 Douglas aircraft which were manned by U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics. In 1931, Eckener broke yet another record with the flight that made it to the Arctic.
Eckener was never a supporter of the Nazi Party and his refusal to endorse Adolf Hitler’s policies or to be party to the propaganda machine led to him to be set aside by the regime and his role in the airship company curtailed which may have been a blessing in disguise. He was to have been the Commander of the ill fated Hindenburg but was reassigned last minute to the role of Supervisor. Ernst Lehmann was given the Commander position. Eckener would later learn the Goebbels had banned the use of his name or picture in any German publications hence forth. The Hindenburg as we know flew from Frankfurt to Lakehurst in the U.S. where the massive helium filled airship caught fire resulting in the deaths of 13 passengers and 22 crew members.
Eckener died in 1954 but his life’s achievements were never to be forgotten.
