The Men Depicted On German 2-Mark Coins

Yep, that's them The Max Planck coin was the second 2 DM type, legal tender until August 1973. All the others are from the third type - politicians of the Federal Republic, legal tender until the end of December 2001.

The coins of that third type were issued on different occasions, e.g. 20 Years Federal Republic of Germany - see the inscriptions around the heads. Franz Josef Strauß was a minister in the federal government for several years, and later governor (Ministerpräsident) of Bavaria.

Technically the three types of 2 DM coins are all different: The first one was a little smaller than the later pieces and looked (too) similar to the 1 DM piece; the second one was larger and had a new design (Planck); the third type has a "sandwich" structure with a pure nickel core.

By the way, there were a few (but not many) design changes. For example, the 50 Pf coin had a milled edge until 1971; after that it was a smooth edge. The 5 DM piece was silver until 1974, and then a CuNi coin (different design too) ...

Christian

Identifying the Planck coin, in case you have one, should be easy - it actually says "Max Planck".
http://www.weltderphysik.de/_img/ar...0x240_80.jpg
(Side note: This year Germany issued a €10 collector coin http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDok...eb_Zoom.jpeg depicting Planck.)

If you want to know "who is who" (for the third type), have a look here:
http://www.muenzauktionen.eu/assets...Komplett.jpg
The image is a little blurry but you can see each coin with the name of the depicted politician.

Christian

It's called Magnimat 7, and it's the same metal used in the white metal parts of E1 and E2 coins. If you have a magnet, stick it to the coin, but then you can shake it off. Apparently because of this special magnetic attraction, it's a security material coin.