Saturday, July 28, 2007

Wert-Marke

Here is a German (I presume) 20 Wert-Marke token. I don't know yet what a Wert-Marke token is, so I'm about to make some inquiries. The reverse is featureless save for the dots circling the perimeter.7-29-07, 9:00 PM: Various private manufacturers minted these in Germany, I'm told. This one may have been minted between 1900 and 1940. Many examples are countermarked, because the token manufacturer would sell these to businesses to be given to customers for later redemption. The private businesses would countermark (stamp) some letter or symbol to signify which business was using it. There are many tokens that look like this, so tracing its exact origin may be impossible.

4 comments:

  1. I have a similar one in the value 25 Mark and additional engraving SEEFELS which is probably the company that used to distribute this token to their clients.

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  2. These particular Wert Marke tokens are from German South West Africa.
    Go to TokenCatalog.com then click onto SearchAll for additional information.

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  3. Thanks for that information, Bob. I had no idea!

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  4. ...Although, from my reading, I am not convinced that is the case. It could we be...but this token seems very generic and is not counterstamped. It looks to me like it bears strong similarities to fairly generic tokens manufactured in German-speaking parts of Europe between 1900 and 1940, and nailing it down to a particular locale might be impossible without a counter stamp. ???

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I'm eager to hear your thoughts!