Does anyone know this coin?

[carenr85]

Hello guys I'm new to stacking/collecting coins and I'm new to The Silver Forum as well, I was at the LCS and I bought a beautiful coin (10 Mark commemorating Beethoven's 200 anniversary)  from East Germany. I did some research on it and I found out that it is .625 Silver, but I couldn't find the mint where it was minted at, I do see a "F4" mark, I dont't know if that is that mint mark, and if that it is what does it mean?

 

Thank You.

[HelpingHands]

I think you already know everything from Numista

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces43331.html

https://www.mdm.de/1970-ddr-gedenkmunze-200-geburtstag-ludwig-v-beethoven

 

[carenr85]

Yes I did see the Numista website. According to the German site MDM, it is from East Berlin, well with my very small knowledge of German and google translate that's what I understood. I do appreciate it, no matter where it was minted it is a beautiful piece.

[Gimson]

I looked a bit into the coin.  There's a bit more information on Catawiki than Numista, including the designers:

https://www.catawiki.com/catalog/coins/countries/gdr/1632663-gdr-10-mark-1970-200th-birthday-ludwig-von-beethoven

I'm not sure about the F4, but maybe it has something to do with the designer Fitzenreiter.  That being said, the other coins designed by him at that link don't seem to have the F4 symbol. I'll see if I can find something else.  Doing a bit more research, I found this:

http://www.coinweek.com/world-coins/east-german-commemorative-coins-the-collector-market-25-years-later/

Quote

This distinction has been largely discarded today. All East German commemoratives were struck at Berlin, many still bearing the A mintmark though no other Mints were in service.

Hope this helps!

[carenr85]

Yes it did help a lot, I did not see any of those two sites. Coin week had a lot of rich history about it and not only this specific coin but the story of the East Germany coins in General. According to the site the "F4" mark is both the designers mark, " Fitzenreiter and Bertram (F4) designed the 1971 .625 silver 20 mark of ultra-leftist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg...". 

Thank you so much for your help. I think I made a good purchase

[carenr85]

I did hear about Jaeger, so you can buy the book or catalog? or is there some website?