Last Thursday I was cruising a pawn shop looking for coins. I spotted a bag containing 36 German 5 Mark silver coins. There were 2 designs.....Hindenburg 1935 - 1936, large Eagle on reverse - 6 different mintmarks for each year and 1936 - 1939 (Swastika-Hindenburg) with an Eagle holding a wreath with a large swastika in the wreath. There were 6 different mintmarks for '36, '37' and '38, and 7 mintmarks for 1939. I'm assuming some poor guy had to raise some money for something and pawned them because the 1st set had 12 coins and one is missing. In the 2nd set ( '36-'39) of the swastika, there were 25 coin and all were there. Needless to say, I jumped on them.
The 3rd Reich 5 mark coins were 90% silver and is slightly smaller than the U S half, BUT, has 11% more silver.....5 Mark-.40 oz / U S half -- .36 oz. I did pay around 60% more than spot for the whole collection, but the way things are going, the U S guv'mint might ban them exclaiming, "This coin is unappropriate for collectors." It's illegal to sell this coin in Germany, France, and I'm guessing other European countries.
