Karlsruhe coin scandal
During the Karlsruhe coin scandal at the beginning of the 1970s, coins were minted by employees in the state mint of Karlsruhe without an official commission , and valuable collector's items in particular were forged.
history
These coins were privately sold or passed on by the employees to collectors and employees of the Federal Ministry of Finance . According to investigations by the public prosecutor's office, around 1650 to 1700 coins with a collector's value of around DM 500,000 at the time are said to have been produced.
The director of the mint Willy Ott , the deputy director Stefan Heiling and the skilled worker Klaus Fetzner were directly involved in these illegal coins . In the course of the later investigations, however, investigative proceedings were also initiated against the then Bundesbank director Werner Lucht .
The collector Phillip Kaplan noticed the illegal coinage in 1974. He was amazed at the increased occurrence of rare coins and turned to the Bundesbank. Upon closer inspection of these coins, he noticed that the official dies had been used for the production. However, the original stamps were used for the decisive side, but the modern stamps (incorrect stamp coupling) or new knurling irons, which did not yet exist for the alleged year of stamping, were used for the other side. The tampering was not noticed during the internal controls (“coin fall”), since the unauthorized unauthorized coin blanks were replaced by the corresponding amount of freshly minted coins.
All affected coins have the mint mark of the Karlsruhe Mint, "G", and can be divided into two categories. These are either replicas of existing coins, especially the 50 pfennig coin from 1950 “Bank Deutscher Lander” (J. 379) and the 2 pfennig coin from 1967 PP (“iron, copper-plated”), but also of the 5 DM course piece from 1951 in PP. Or coins were minted for which there had never been an order that year or for the Karlsruhe mint, such as the 2 DM piece from 1959 (J. 392).
Convictions
The Karlsruhe Regional Court first sentenced one defendant for theft and attempted fraud in two cases to a total imprisonment of ten months, another defendant for theft, attempted fraud and aiding and abetting embezzlement to a total imprisonment of eleven months and a fine, and a third defendant for embezzlement one Fine. The execution of the prison sentences had been suspended. The public prosecutor's office had challenged the judgment, because there was no conviction for counterfeiting . However, the district court had assumed that money minted in a state coin could not be counterfeit, even if it was produced "privately" for profit without being commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Finance . However, the Federal Court of Justice saw the lack of a mandate from the Ministry as decisive and rejected the proceedings. Otherwise, the coins are therefore counterfeit money and must be confiscated. The district court then decided that the defendants were not aware of the counterfeiting due to ignorance of the legal situation and changed the penalties only insignificantly, which the BGH then confirmed.
swell
- Particular rarity. In: Der Spiegel . No. 23/1975, pp. 70 ff., (Online)
- One time thing. In: Der Spiegel. No. 41/1976, p. 40 ff., (Online)
- Monetary history news. 1976, issue No. 57, p. 29 ff.
- Kurt Jaeger: The German coins since 1871. 21st edition. Gietl, Regenstauf 2009, ISBN 978-3-86646-521-3 , p. 379.
- Peter Presch u. a .: From the guilder to the euro: 175 years of the Karlsruhe Mint. Info-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2002, ISBN 3-88190-290-2 . (Series of publications by the Karlsruhe City Archives, Vol. 3)
Individual evidence
- ↑ BGHSt 27 255 Federal Court of Justice judgment in criminal matters, accessed on July 19, 2012.
- ^ Peter Pretsch: From the guilder to the euro: 175 years of the Karlsruhe mint. P. 54.