GERMANY. Kaiserreich. Württemberg. Wilhelm II, 1891-1918. Pattern 3 Mark 1911 F (Silver, 33 mm, 16.60 g, 12 h), on the Silver Wedding Anniversary. Stuttgart. WILHELM II•UND•CHARLOTTE•VON•WÜRTTEMBERG•1886-1911• Conjoined busts of Wilhelm II and Charlotte to right, F below. Rev. DEUTSCHES - REICH 1911 / *DREI MARK* Imperial eagle. Beckenbauer -. Cf. Jaeger 177a and KM 636 for prototype. Schaaf -. An apparently unpublished matte-finish pattern. Tiny marks, light deposits on the obverse and very minor edge nicks, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



Matte-finish coins occupy a very small and still poorly understood niche in modern German numismatics. While a handful of regular issues are known with this treatment - notably the 1934 Schiller 5 Reichsmark coins (Jaeger 359) - examples dating from the pre-World War I era are exceptionally rare and have received remarkably little scholarly attention.

Among the few pieces to have surfaced is a matte 3 Mark of Saxe-Meiningen (Jaeger 154), first brought to wider attention in 2022 (Teutoburger 143, 1 March 2022, lot 2729). Stuttgart, a mint well known for experimenting with different methods of production, also employed matte surfaces during the Imperial period: proof examples of its 3 Mark coinage are known with a matte obverse (cf. Jaeger 178). Until now, however, no example struck with a matte finish on both sides appears to have been recorded.

Such early 20th-century matte strikings are best understood in the context of experimental and pattern coinage. This is particularly relevant to the Württemberg 3 Mark commemorating the royal couple’s Silver Wedding Anniversary, for which Schaaf records several patterns (Schaaf 177b G1–5). The present coin was clearly struck from an obverse die differing from that used for the regular issue and represents a previously unrecorded pattern. Most immediately apparent is the greater distance between the obverse legend and the rim, as well as the unusually crisp and sharply defined mintmark. Closer examination reveals further differences in the portraits: the King’s neck truncation is noticeably longer, while both the King and Queen have more pointed noses. Interestingly, these last two characteristics are shared with the pattern published as Schaaf 177b G5.

This remarkable piece therefore expands the already intriguing series of Württemberg 3 Mark patterns by a previously unknown type. More broadly, its fully matte surfaces provide important new evidence for a rare and little-studied aspect of coin production in Imperial Germany.