| Description : The first coin of the Federal States Series II, which focuses
in particular on the cultural identity and regional characteristics of the individual states, is dedicated to the federal
state of Hamburg in accordance with the order of the alternating presidencies of the Federal Council. Hamburg presents
itself with the Elbphilharmonie, the new landmark of the maritime Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg ‐ located in the
port of Hamburg, which as part of the Lower Elbe is exposed to the tides. According to the design of the Swiss architects
"Herzog & de Meuron", a modern structure with a glass faĉade and an undulating roof was erected using the shell of
the former 'Kaispeicher A' as a base. The total height of the concert hall, which was built from 2007 to 2016 and
inaugurated in 2017, is 110 metres. A calculated investment volume of €77 million ultimately became €866 million. The coin
design by the artist Michael Otto, whose ligatured initials "mo" appear on the right, shows the "Elphi" against the
backdrop of the neo‐Gothic brick architecture of Hamburg's Speicherstadt warehouse district and with two of Hamburg's
typical launches used as tugboats or for passenger tours on the Norderelbe. On the right are three historic half‐portal
loading cranes on the quay ‐ the last of what were once more than 1,000 cranes of this kind in the Hamburg port area
‐ which were used to load coffee and cocoa sacks from the ships into the interior of the Kaispeicher warehouse until
the early 1990s. At the bottom it says "HAMBURG", on the left the country abbreviation "D" (for Deutschland, Germany) and
below it the year of issue "2023" as well as the German mint mark (A = Staatliche Münze Berlin in
Berlin, D = Bayerisches Hauptmünzamt in Munich, F = Staatliche Münzen
Baden‐Württemberg in Stuttgart, G = Staatliche Münzen Baden‐Württemberg in
Karlsruhe oder J = Landesbetrieb Hamburgische Münze in Hamburg). |
