I looking for expert advice on a Third Reich coin that I purchased recently from eBay. The reason I ask for your assistance is because the coin has an unusually high surface lustre. I have compared the metrics of the coin on this site against mine and I see some differences. I hear that there are a lot of Chinese imitiataions of Nazi coins these days that are almost undetectable, lazer cut and casted ones
I just want to know what is the acceptable standared deviation in weight, diameter and thickness for the coin in discussion. Below I present my Coin's Stats
I will try and upload the images in a short while.
* Deno : 5 Reichpfennig ( 0.05 Mark )
* Dated : 1938
* Color : Goldish - with very small green corrosion in corner ( I hear the alloy is bronze aluminium, but have no idea how that alloy corrodes )
* Weight : 2.52 g ( As aginst 2.53 g as quoted on this site)
* Dia : 19-20 mm ( As aginst 18 mm as quoted on this site)
* Thick : 1.1-1.2 mm ( As aginst 1.42 mm as quoted on this site)
* Edge : Vertical rims
PS : I know that these are cheap coin and commands no numismatic value, but still it is quite intolerable to be cheated from a site like eBay.
Nazi coinage does tend to bring a better than average price in a lot of places. ( flea market/ boot sales, antique stores tend to WAY over value these coins), but I don't see them being very high on the counterfeiters target list. The silver issues being an exception.
From looking at the pics there is nothing which makes me suspicious of it. The value of the coin makes it pointless to fake to sell to collectors so I think its legit. I am not into these coins so I would not know how accurately the Germans made their coinage. I would not be surprised if there is quite a wide range in the weights of these coins.
There are 7 million 300,000 of these coins, its not rare, its not worth anything, no one is faking low value coins so don't worry. They only fake coins of $20 or more in value, mostly silver or ultra rare coins are faked.
here are the measurements of the coins I have measured with the km#91:
YEAR MINT QUALITY Weight Diam1 Thick edge Orientation
1937 G XF 2,52 18,00 1,46 r m
1938 G XF 2,50 17,99 1,47 r m
1938 J XF 2,45 17,95 1,44 r m
1939 B XF 2,52 18,10 1,58 r m
1939 F vf+ 2,44 18,13 1,46 r m
1939 G XF 2,46 17,98 1,43 r m
average 2,481666667 18,025 1,473333333
The averages are for weight, diameter and thickness
Since I only measure since 8 years, all the coins in my collection have not been measured yet. At least it'll give you a guide, and you can decide for yourself, if your coin is Inside the limits.
