1923 D 200 Mark German (Weimar Republic) Major Doubled Die

[Russellhome]

Another eBay find...

A 1923 D 200 Mark German (Weimar Republic) Doubled Die

I'm not even sure if this is technically a coin. It was minted during the hyper inflation that occurred in Germany from 1921 to 1923 and was pretty much worthless the day it was minted. It is the size of a quarter, as thin as a dime, and made out of aluminum. It is of worse quality than a 'Chuck-E-Cheese' token. There may be a million of these floating around, but it was a great doubled die and I just had to add it to my foreign DV collection.



The left side has the least amount of spread and it gets stronger moving clock-wise around the coin.



The spread is heavier at 12:00 o'clock. Note the split in the bird beak.



The spread on the right is just plain wild. To add to the confusion, it appears to have mechanical/strike doubling in addition to being a true hub doubled die.



The bottom is back to showing less of a spread. Note the notch in the star and the the doubled claw tips.



If you think our current economic times are bad -- just look back in history to see what happens when a country decides to pay off its debt by simply printing more money. By the fall of 1923, the German Mark was pretty much worthless. It would take several 200 Mark coins just to buy a postage stamp. Notes were issued in excess of a billion marks and local cities started printing their own local money in an attempt to control the chaos. It was during this time that the seeds of fascism began to take root.



I wonder what 1,001,100,201.25 Marks could buy in 1923? Probably not much.

[eagames]

Neat ddo.

Looks like it has rattlesnake teeth.

[KurtS]

Wow! I think that's the most careless diemaking I've ever seen! No doubt they had to hurry, because the coins were already devalued after a single die run.

Btw, I moderate a world variety/error forum on another board. Would you mind if I posted a few of your pics? This DD is so dramatic that I'm sure other collectors would enjoy seeing it!

Am I seeing more than a doubled die here (tripled and quad dies are possible...there is an IHC quadrupled die).

[Russellhome]

I think what you are seeing is Mechanical Doubling in combination with a major hub doubled die. That flat stuff (see arrows in the photo below) is actually damage - part of the design shaved off or flattened. This coin only shows MD on the right side. The letters at 12:00 o'clock don't show MD. Here is a comparison of the two...



The letters at the the top show two distinct and heavy hubbings. The bottom half shows the same, except to the NE instead of to the SE. However - MD has flattened part of the image on the right side - and really made a mess of the "F" and "E". The doubling on these two words should have looked very similar had MD not been involved.

I've found the tripple and quad doubled coins. They are German (Nazi era) and also minted in Munich (D). Here is a nice TDO/DDR combo (a 1939 D 2 RM)













BTW: I sent you a private message regarding my photos. Feel free to post them elsewere. Thanks for asking. It is only when people don't ask that I take issue with it (which has happened to me on several eBay auctions).

[KurtS]

Ken,
I had an inkling that MD was involved on the '23--thanks for making it clear amidst everything going on there.

[daggit]

Those are great Ken!