Commemorative coins:

German new releases

What was the purpose of commemorative coins before the mints discovered them as a lucrative source of income? They were intended to strengthen citizens’ sense of identity, to remind them of where they belonged, and to showcase the state’s achievements. Let’s see to what extent this will be achieved in the near future.

Commemorative coins for 2027

No new series is due to begin in 2027. This is to be welcomed. We have far too many series as it is, meaning the average collector quickly loses track of them all. In addition to the classic silver collector’s coins, which are now available in denominations of 35 and 50 euros, there are the 2-euro commemorative circulation coins, the 5-euro coins made of copper-nickel or cupro-nickel, the 10-euro coins with a polymer ring, not to mention the gold commemorative coins in denominations of 20, 50 and 100 euros. All in all, our commemorative coin range comprises 8 face values! In different sizes and made from different materials! Anyone wishing to own all the emissions – and who even opts for proof finish and coins from all mints – will have to invest a small five-figure sum. Given the rather declining interest in contemporary commemorative coinage, isn’t this going a bit too far?

26.1.27	2 euro	North Rhine-Westphalia (Aachen Cathedral)	Federal States II
26.1.27	35 euro	Influential Women	Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt
4.3.27	35 euro	Influential Women	Tamara Danz
18.3.27	2 euro	Hans-Dietrich Genscher	Unity, Justice and Freedom
13.5.27	10 euro	Bundeswehr	In the Service of Society
15.4.27	35 euro	International Garden Exhibition 2027
3.6.27	5 euro	JUICE Space Probe	Space Exploration
21.6.27	100 euro	This Book Belongs to the King	Masterpieces of German Literature
24.6.27	35 euro	150th year of Hermann Hesse’s birth
5.8.27	35 euro	100th year of the premiere of the film METROPOLIS
16.8.27	50 euro	Construction	German craftsmanship
16.9.27	5 euro	James-Webb Space Telescope	Space Exploration
11.10.27	20 euro	Otter	The Return of Wild Animals
18.11.27	50 euro	Every Year Again	Christmas Carols

Space, Women and a Bit of Freedom

If I’ve made a mistake whilst typing out the table, please forgive me. The commemorative coin programme is rather confusing – and in the latest press release I received, even the Federal Office of Administration got the various face values mixed up. Not a good sign.

Yet the programme is very ambitious and ticks all the boxes one would currently expect.

here’s a programme dedicated to women (Schwarzhaupt and Danz), to space (the 5-euro series), and to environmental protection (the otter). It covers not only literature (Hesse and *This Book Belongs to the King*), but also cinema (*Metropolis*), not to mention traditional crafts. There’s a touch of democracy and freedom with Hans-Dietrich Genscher, known to the younger generation chiefly for his (unfinished) speech on the balcony of the Prague Embassy. We’re celebrating the Bundeswehr and the International Garden Show, and have planned a gift coin for Christmas. In principle, there’s nothing wrong with that. The programme attempts to strike a balance between one that everyone can afford – because they can pick it up at the denomination, face value, from the bank counter – and one aimed at collectors.

However, it’s not a programme that really sets my heart racing either. That may well be because, in Germany, we’ve long since stopped discussing what we can be proud of, and instead focus on everything that’s going wrong.

Communication is everything!

So let’s see this programme as an opportunity! I hope to find out more about Tamara Danz and Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt! But unfortunately, even the driest Wikipedia entry contains more emotion than what I’m presented with on the Federal Ministry of Finance’s website. And honestly – the Federal Office of Administration’s blog isn’t much more heart-warming either! Yet Tamara Danz, for example, would offer the chance to finally discover a chapter of German music history that many have yet to notice. With musical examples and the moving story of a successful, dedicated woman who died far too young from breast cancer.

I’m looking forward to the unveiling of the 10-euro Bundeswehr coin. It would be so fine to present it at an open day at a barracks. That’s when soldiers show the general public what they do – and when the general public can express their gratitude for their service. I hope there will be an event in a cinema to mark the launch of METROPOLIS, and perhaps we could team up with the Swiss when honouring the eternally adolescent Hermann Hesse with a coin. “This Book Belongs to the King” should be presented in a socially deprived area of Berlin, and the commemorative coin “Building on a Construction Site” (but please, not Stuttgart 21).
What I’m trying to say is that every coin is an opportunity for the government to engage positively with the public – it just hardly ever makes use of them.

The designs for the 2026 coins

Finally, let’s take a look at the designs that the Federal Office of Administration recently sent me. And before you ask: the selection defies my logic. It’s no doubt linked to internal administrative processes that I don’t understand. I did find it rather remarkable that I was sent minutes of the results for coins that had been on sale for six weeks and one week respectively. Let’s put it this way: there is still room for improvement in the Federal Administrative Office’s press relations. And plenty of room for improvement at that.

After all, commemorative coins are a wonderful medium through which the state can present itself to its citizens. If this wonderful medium degenerates into nothing more than a money-printing machine, citizens might feel they are not being taken quite seriously.