The issue date is 10 September 2020. We will provide information on the availability of the €5 collectors' coin “Subpolar zone” at our branches in due course.

Generally, it is not possible to reserve German mint condition euro collectors' coins circulated by the Deutsche Bundesbank or have them delivered. Standard finish coins can be pur-chased at their face value from our branches during counter opening times from the issue date while stocks last. Authorisations will not be accepted.

3.4 million of these coins will be minted in total. 3 million of these coins will be produced in mint condition (600,000 coins per mint) and 0.4 million will be minted with the more valuable proof-like finish (80,000 coins per mint).

The €5 coin is a collectors' coin and not a coin in circulation. A limited number are issued as collectors’ items. The nature of a collectors’ item is that increases in value result from the item’s scarcity. When the €5 collectors' coin “Planet Earth” was first issued in 2016, not only did the Federal Ministry of Finance want to expand the range of collectors' coins, which had previously been tailored to classic coin collectors, it also hoped to reach a new, younger target group through the low selling price of €5 for a mint condition coin and the coin’s unusual appearance. It is hoped that this will bring life to coin collecting.

The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), Germany’s coin issuer, set the number of €5 collectors' coins to be issued at three million mint condition coins. Following consultation with the BMF, two-thirds are intended for the banking industry to supply their customers and for the Deutsche Bundesbank for distribution to private individuals via its 35 branches. One-third will go to commercial coin dealers.

With a maximum circulation of three million mint condition coins set by the BMF, of which only a small proportion will be distributed to private individuals via the Deutsche Bundesbank’s 35 branches, the sale of sets of coins with all five mint locations is not possible, nor is it planned.

The distribution limit of four coins per person per day at Deutsche Bundesbank branches for the €10 collector’s coin “Subpolar zone” was set in accordance with the BMF’s desire to make such a coin available to as many citizens as possible. The extent to which credit institutions or commercial coin dealers distributed entire coin rolls to their customers lies beyond the knowledge and influence of the Deutsche Bundesbank.

Whether and to what extent a credit institution offers its customers German euro collectors' coins for purchase is a business decision taken by the respective enterprise. Banks offering this service receive the coins from the Deutsche Bundesbank. Contact your principal banker and your local banks to find out which institutions are selling the €5 coin “Subpolar zone”.

The €5 collectors' coin is legal tender in Germany; one may therefore pay for transactions with this coin in Germany in principle. However, the coin – as with all other German euro collectors' coins – will rarely be used for payments.

Certificates of authenticity are only issued for German euro collectors' coins that are struck in gold, ie the gold €20, €50, €100 and €200 coins.

The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), Germany’s coin issuer, published an information leaflet for the innovative €5 collectors' coins “Planet Earth” (2016) and “Tropical climate zone” (2017). An information leaflet will not be published for the coins belonging to the series issued from 2018 onwards.
 

Due to the huge level of demand, the contingent assigned to our branches for private individuals ran out within a very short period of time after the respective issue dates, meaning that these coins are no longer available from the Deutsche Bundesbank.