One From Every Country #13: Bavaria

I have debated how I wanted to handle the next country, because there are multiple ways I could have done it, and each are equally valid.

In the land now known as Germany, the country wasn't unified into what it is today until 1871. Before that, it was a collection of various states, free cities, etc. and each issued their own coins. They continued to do so even after 1871 for the higher denomination coinage, up until World War I when Germany was essentially decimated by making all the wrong decisions in the war. Obviously, I am simplifying this greatly, as it's just a quick essay on the coin  here.

That left me with some options for the German States coinage I have. There were a LOT of various German states that issued coinage and I have only a handful of them present in my collection. Should I...

• List them as German States, which would group them all together in alphabetical order,
• list them under the name of each state
• list them as a combined unit of "German States" 
• not even give the a separate listing, but consider them an offshoot of the listing for Germany itself? 

I chose to go with option #2, list them under each state. This idea was helped along by the fact that the examples I have for all of them predate the 1871 unification and list only the locale that issued them, not the all-encompassing Germany.

With all that said, the first one I have alphabetically is Bavaria. I have only one coin from the state, and I am aware that it was cleaned before I got it. I in fact received it as a gift from a fellow collector. Most of the states I have in my collection are represented by a single coin,  with the exception of Prussia, which I have 4 of at the time of this writing (11/20/2015)

The pfennig was the lowest denomination in the German States, and after the 1871 unification the only pfennings issued would be by Germany itself, the states no longer minted their own.

It may not be clear to tell from the scan, but this example was minted in 1858. It was the first year for the final type issued by Bavaria. I know that scans are not really the best way to capture the look of coins, but they have proven to be very difficult for me to photograph and scanning them does provide a uniformity to the entire collection- something I'm big on.

Thanks for reading!

New Background's meaning to me

I finally got myself in gear and created a background for this blog. I had actually made the scan years ago but just got it placed here today, December 5th, 2015. The Bicentennial Quarter means a lot to me. I save everyone I find as a tribute to my dad, (I've got about 50 of them) who was taken from us by cancer.

He saved them when he found them, saying that they will be worth something someday. I couldn't care less about that, but I save them as a tribute to him.

This one was minted by Denver. Here's the full image. I removed some of the scanner scuzz to make the background.