GERMANY. Kaiserreich. Preußen. Friedrich III, 1888. Pattern 2 Mark (Nickel, 29 mm, 11.28 g, 12 h), Berlin, no date (1888) L. FRIEDRICH DEUTSCHER KAISER KÖNIG V. PREUSSEN Bare head of Friedrich III to right. Rev. Post horn within wreath; below, P. Beckenbauer -. Schaaf pp. 170. Corrosion and scratches on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.


For a long time, this rare pattern remained unattributed, despite being listed in Schaaf’s standard catalog of German pattern coins (R. Schaaf: Die Proben der deutschen Münzen, Basel 1979, p. 170). On the obverse, beneath the bust of Friedrich III - precisely where the mintmark appears on official issues - we find the letter 'L'. This strongly suggests a connection to the well-known Nuremberg private minting company Lauer, which operated on a large scale, especially between 1856 and 1915. Unfortunately, Lauer’s company archives were destroyed during an air raid in 1945, leaving no surviving records of any potential trial strikes they may have produced for Imperial German coinage.

The reverse, however, removes all doubt about the piece’s origin. Schaaf cautiously identified the post horn in the wreath as a possible mintmaster's mark, though he left the attribution open. In fact, the post horn was demonstrably used as the firm’s logo making Lauer the definitive source of this pattern. Numerous other pieces from the company clearly display the same emblem (cf. H. Caspar, Lauersche Prägungen für alle Gelegenheiten, online publication, 26 May 2021).