Folks, there is a hype about this coin here in Germany which is unbelieveable. I haven't seen anything like this in my life thus far. Not even when we changed from Deutsche Mark to Euro. This coin has made the front page of newspapers and was on the tv evening news on all major channels.
Part of it is because of the novelty – it's a three material coin (two metals, plus ''plastic''). But I think the major reason is the denomination: €5. That reminds anybody over the age of 25 of the 5 DM coin. That coin (denomination) had it's own nickname ''Heiermann'' -- the only other denomination of the DM which had it's own name was the 10 Pfg coin, the ''Groschen.'' The 5 DM coin was much more popular and widespread than the 5 DM banknote. It also had real buying power back in the day.
So, this coin reminds many, many people of the good, old days. This, coupled with the media coverage, has created a very high demand for this coin. Not only collectors are interested in it, but also ''normal'' people, regular folks.
Of course, this has created a big problem for collectors. Although the mintage of 2.000.000 -- 400.000 per mint,
each mint has it's own shade of blue -- is reasonably high, demand is very high too.
Coins and complete sets were available via the commemorative coin office of the Federal treasury. Although the Treasury put a ''nice'' premium on the sets, they sold out rather quickly, but most folks/collectors didn't take that too seriously (including myself).
On April 14th, the coin was finally issued into ''circulation.'' Coins could be bought at the few remaing offices of the Bundesbank for €5. It's a 5-for-5 deal. However, each office of the Bundesbank only has coins from one mint (as always, they didn't anounce which office has which mint), and more importantly, they implemented a ''only one coin per person'' policy. Two days in, they still stick to that policy. And still, there were pretty long lines at many offices. People waited for an hour.
I had planned to get the coin(s) at my local ''Sparkasse'' (that's a local and relatively small bank operating under public laws and regulations) where I have an account. They (my and most other Sparkassen) always have the German x-for-x coins. On Monday, I went to one of the four major branches and was told that they have the coin on Friday. So, this Friday morning, I went there -- let's call it office ''H.'' I was told that the coin will probably be available after the lunch break. But I had business in another city. So I went to branch ''E'' after lunch. They had 100 coins for sale but got them in the morning. Only one coin per customer. But neverthless, they were sold out in less than 2 hours. My hunting instict kicked into high gear. Giving up on doing anything productive for the rest of the day, I high-tailed it to branch ''H.'' I was lucky. The coin was there! Unfortunately, one coin per customer only. I got one from the last roll they had -- 45 minutes after starting to sell.
I hope that the hype will die down soon. I won't pay more than €10 for a coin; €8 is a reasonable price, but that's probabyl wishful thinking. I have asked a relative to go to her Sparkasse, which told her earlier they have the coin next week. But I will be surprised if she can get me one or two coins.
I will be watching closely what coin dealers want for this coin and how German ebay prices are -- today, €20 for a coin was the lowest, down from €30 yesterday. Ridiculous.
Enough talk. Here are pictures of the coin I got.
--Front
--Back
--Hold into the light. Yeah, the blue ring is translucent when light shines from behind the coin. The ring ''glows''
---€5 next to a €2 coin
