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In the First Infantry Division (Forward) we didn't have challenge coins.
I didn't even hear of challenge coins until years after leaving the service.
People keep telling me they're old as dirt, but you couldn't tell from late 1980's Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
What we had was the ein Pfennigstück.
You yelled, "Pfennig check!" and everyone produced their lowest denomination German coin.
If you had no change, you're buying!
One Pfennig pieces were rare on the ground in Stuttgart, so having an ein Pfennigstück meant you were immune to the Pfennig check.
Unless everyone had one.
Then it was the OLDEST coin that won.
I had a 1950 ein Pfennigstück, so I never had to buy.
I went looking for that coin the other day and it's long gone.
To ebay!
Where I discover that there were 1948 and 1949 Pfennig!
Of note, the earlier two coins don't say Bundesrepublik Deutschland. I don't think the whole East/West Germany thing had solidified yet.
Nice! Where I was stationed we didn't have those sorts of traditions sadly (Dexheim/Mannheim), but I kept a bin of the old German coins when I transferred out of Germany. Was SUPPOSED to be ETSing, but read the fine print about "needs of the Army", and so to Bragg... We had the various "challenge coins" from the units we were assigned to since as Engineers we got sent a lot of strange places but not really being part of those units we never did much with them. Mine are on a shelf in my office here as a "weird relic" of my time in exile... The old 1 pfennig pieces seem like an amusing thing to carry around, but essentially useless otherwise :-)...
ReplyDeleteI've got some stashed away. Don't no the dates though.
ReplyDeleteI was over there 80-82 . Bamberg.
Wish you had said something here before spending $$. I have a bag of old coins that never made it to the bank when they went to the euro. Pretty sure there are some in there ;-)
ReplyDeleteTwo things drove me to spend the $5 total for four of them (mostly shipping).
Delete1) I wanted particular dates. 48-50
2) I wanted particular mint codes. Stuttgart in 48-50 (where I was stationed) and a 50 from Munich (the date and mint I had in service)
I used to have a pretty good coin collection, including a lot that my grandfather had brought back from France after World War One. I have no idea what happened to it---it might even be upstairs at this place (I seldom or never go up there---the stairs are narrow and steep, and I'm less fond of climbing stairs than I was in my yoot)
ReplyDeleteHey Angus;
ReplyDeleteI did get a 1st Div (Fwd) coin when I left Cooke Barracks in 1987 to go to SAAF from my Platoon Lt at my farewell party, apparently they had to get them from Division HQ from what I was told. And Yes I still have my "Phenning" coin from Germany.