World Lowball Collecting

Germany

As for post-1871 Germany, the coins issued early on are sometimes found in well-circulated condition.



The problem is, the mintmark can be completely worn off in such cases as it's located beside the eagle's tail feathers - and thus very close to the rim.

The first types of German Empire coins circulated until:
1 and 2 pfennig - Feb. 28, 1942
5 and 10 pfennig - Oct. 10, 1924
20 pfennig - Dec. 31, 1901
50 pfennig - Sep. 30, 1908
1 mark - Apr. 19, 1920.
(source: sammler.com)

Although it seems the 5 and 10 pfennig pieces are found in well-worn condition much more often than the 1 and 2 pfennig, even though the latter ones officially circulated much longer.

One can sometimes find the heavy copper-nickel 20 pfennig pieces relatively circulated especially considering the fact that they were in use until Dec. 31, 1902 only.

Exept for these and the earliest silver 2 and 5 mark pieces, a lowball collection of Germany certainly seems a very difficult task to undertake.

geraltttttt82: According to what I know, a lowball coin is a coin which is heavily worn, but still fully identifiable and not damaged. They would probably go as quality level 1 in the best case (higher numbers are worse, so MS70 is the complete opposite of a true lowball coin). There's quite a market for lowball coins nowadays. It's actually quite a challenge to have heavily worn coins which are not damaged, and according to most lowball collectors I know, lowball coins really have a story to tell if coins could talk. At least more than MS-level coins.

Hope this helps. If I missed anything, please feel free to correct me.

Here's my 1897 Dominican peso, a one-year type. This (attractively sculpted) coin is unusually low-purity: it's the size of your typical silver dollar, but its alloy is only .350 fine. As a result, when the U.S. dollar replaced the peso in 1905, the rate ended up at 5 pesos to 1 dollar. The Dominican Republic didn't produce a single coin from 1897 to 1937, which probably explains why the 1897 series appear to always be found worn.

Russian Poland, 30 kopeks / 2 zlote 1839 MW (Warsaw):





( ebay listing photos)

A similar or lower grade would already be unusual.
I encountered a statement that they circulated until 1890 but most certainly don't look like they were in use for so long.

Here's a group of French sols. The 1793T (Nantes) is a nice coin but the 2S 1793I (Limoges) is as smooth as a polished rock.

I'm specifically not identifying them, but my still-ongoing contest features several coins that would definitely be covered by this topic.
(If any of you think you can recognize them and guess the date - by all means, post in the linked thread. No one yet had successfully guessed them all correctly.)

I have a few other lowballs (both dated and dateless), but only one (and it's not even really a lowball) with a photo, unfortunately:



German states, Wied-Neuwied. 1/4 stueber 1749 (KM 4).

january1may, I remember you posting you had some British pennies that would certainly be considered lowball (and some even beyond that, with no legible date). That is also an area to consider for lowball collecting.

Then, there are these Russian coppers:





Thanks to their design, the obverse may be completely gone but the date is often still there.

Though it makes you wonder whether that's genuine wear. Being from 1938, it didn't have much time to circulate.