Mint mark

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Mint mark or embossed characters are to identify the origin of a coin in the punch cut letters ( Münzbuchstaben ), numbers, or symbols and are on many coins that serve as currency. The embossed sign is in the coinage pressed . In general, a distinction must be made between the mint mark, abbreviated Mzz., I.e. mint mark, the mint master mark (identification of the mint master), abbreviated Mmz., And the artist's signature. Sometimes the “mint mark” is used to refer to both the mint mark and the mint master mark. Some mint marks are also used on investment coins or collector coins from mints to honor certain occasions or to mark limited editions (" Privy Mark ")

Mint marks for mints

In many countries, the mint mark consists of a letter or a short combination of letters, each of which stands for a specific mint.

Germany

The German euro coins , like the DM coins, have a letter that indicates the mint that made the coin. Germany is the only euro-emitting country that commissions more than one mint to produce coins. The requirements are similarly distributed. The code letters of the German mints are:

There used to be other mints with different mint marks in Germany. A further list can be found in the article Mint .

East German coins were minted mainly in Berlin and consequently had the mint mark A . The only exception are the coins with the mint mark E , which were minted in the Muldenhütten mint near Freiberg (Saxony) until 1953 , which were taken over from the previous mint in Dresden .

France

In Paris embossed coins bore from 1559, first the mintmark A . Coins from Metz between 1693 and 1802 bore the mint mark AA .

Austria

The coins minted in Vienna ( Austrian Mint ) bore the mint mark A from 1766 to 1868 .

Switzerland

Swiss coins bear the mint mark B for the Swissmint in Bern. In the years 1970–1985, however, the mintmark was omitted from the Bern coinage. The fifty cent coins from 1968 and 1969 as well as the one and two franc coins from 1968 exist both with and without a mintmark. The pieces without a mintmark were minted in London. The capacities of the Federal Mint were no longer sufficient at that time, as after the sharp rise in the price of silver, the silver coins were hoarded and had to be replaced by copper-nickel coins. Also minted in London were all two-centime coins from 1969 (without mintmark), some of the fifty centimes coins from 1970 (indistinguishable from the Berne coins, as both were without a mintmark) and some of the one-franc coins from 1969 (still with a "B", ie not distinguishable from the Berne coinage).

19th century Swiss coins also exist with the following mint marks:

United States

The US dollar coins are manufactured by the United States Mint and bear the following mint marks:

  • P - Philadelphia Mint mint (before 1980 no mintmark)
  • D - Denver Mint mint
  • S - San Francisco Mint
  • W - West Point Mint
  • CC - Carson City Mint
  • C - Charlotte Mint mint
  • O - New Orleans Mint

Country codes on euro coins

For the country of the mint

When the euro was introduced in 2002, Greece was unable to mint all of its euro coins itself and therefore awarded minting orders to foreign mints. These "externally minted" coins were given a country code for the respective mint in one of the twelve euro stars: E (España) for Spain, F (France) for France, S (Suomi) for Finland. Luxembourg , which does not have its own mint, had its coins minted in France in 2007 and 2008 and marked them with an F in the 5 o'clock star. In contrast, the S stood for Suomi / Finland, where Luxembourg had its coins minted in 2005 and 2006, next to the year. Slovenia, on the other hand, marked the Finnish “foreign coins” from 2007 with a Fi next to the 6 o'clock star. Malta marked its coins minted in France in 2008 with an F in the 6 o'clock star, as did - in some cases - those from 2016 and 2017.

For the issuing country

Since the beginning of 2018, Luxembourg , which does not have its own mint, has been marking its euro coins in circulation - at least those that are not offered with special minting technology or packaging - with a mint mark symbolizing Luxembourg as the issuing country, the lion, the heraldic animal of Luxembourg .

Privy Mark mintmark

In recent years, mint marks have been increasingly used to mark individual years or series variants of investment and collector coins and thus to limit the number of pieces. In the English-speaking world, such mint marks are known as privy marks .

Examples of coins with a privy mark are the maple leaf silver and gold coins of the Royal Canadian Mint and the silver ounce of the African springbok issued by Malawi and Gabon since 2010 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ruedi Kunzmann: The silver coin crisis in Switzerland of 1968 and the activity of the Royal Mint , London. In: Schweizer Münzblätter , Vol. 50, Nº 200, 2000, ISSN  0016-5565 , pp. 68-72.
  2. ↑ 20 Cent Greece 2002: Mark "E" , accessed on January 29, 2018
  3. ↑ 2 Euro Greece 2002: Mark "S" , accessed on January 29, 2018
  4. ↑ 2 Euro Slovenia 2007: Marking "Fi" , accessed on January 29, 2018
  5. ↑ 2 Euro Malta 2017: Mark "F" , accessed on January 29, 2018
  6. ^ Lion of the coat of arms of Luxembourg as a national symbol , accessed on January 23, 2018