German Democratic Republic, 5 Pfennig 1952

The German Democratic Republic DDR was founded in October 1949 by the Soviet occupying power. It comprised the five former German lands Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Lusatia, Saxony and Thuringia; its capital was Berlin. Just as in the sister republic, the German Federal Republic BRD, the currency of the DDR was the mark, divided into 100 pfennig. And just as the BRD coins, the coins of the DDR were worthless. The coins of the BRD were made from an alloy of copper and zinc, however, while the mark-pieces of the DDR were from aluminum. The latter is much lighter than copper-zinc, and hence the coins of the DDR always seemed to be more worthless than those of the BRD – which is a false conclusion, in any case regarding the metal value.