Germany melts down silver commemorative coins at a cost of nearly 1.4 million euros

Coins melted after silver rally

The German finance ministry had two commemorative silver coins melted down and reissued at higher face values, at a cost of almost 1.4 million euros. Der Spiegel reported this on Saturday, 31 October 2026, citing the ministry's reply to a query from Green Party budget spokesman Sebastian Schäfer. The coins are 'Heilige Drei Könige' (Three Kings) and '125 Jahre Wuppertaler Schwebebahn' (125 years of the Wuppertal suspension railway). The ministry had halted their planned sale in 2025, when silver rose so far that the metal in each coin was worth more than its stated face value. According to the reply, the coins first had to be deformed at a mint before being melted and struck again with new denominations.

Costs and expected profit

The melting and reminting cost 624,000 euros for the Three Kings coin and 733,000 euros for the Wuppertal coin, a combined 1.357 million euros. The ministry is led by Lars Klingbeil of the SPD, and it still expects a 'clear coin profit in the upper single-digit millions' of euros. That forecast rests partly on the reduced silver content of the new Three Kings coin. The Three Kings coin, originally carrying a 25-euro face value, is due to enter circulation on 5 November as a 50-euro silver coin. The Wuppertal coin was issued with a 35-euro face value instead of 20 euros.

Three Kings coin624,000

125 Jahre Wuppertaler Schwebebahn coin733,000

Three Kings coin

624000 EUR

125 Jahre Wuppertaler Schwebebahn coin

733000 EUR

Data from the article text

Sales status and timeline

Münze Deutschland, the body that distributes German collector and commemorative coins, already shows the Three Kings coin as sold out on its website, days before its planned release. The sequence runs from the 2025 sales halt to the Saturday report, and then to the scheduled release on 5 November.

Criticism and background

Sebastian Schäfer, the Green Party's budget expert, accused the ministry of wasting public money. He said the decision to destroy coins that had already been struck meant tax money had been 'literally and negligently shredded'.

“That is simply not how the money of citizens may be handled.”

Schäfer's criticism centres on the cost of destroying coins that had already been produced. Coverage ties the 2025 price surge to investors moving into precious metals as confidence in US government debt and the dollar fell after Donald Trump returned to the White House and attacked the US central bank. Silver is also an essential industrial metal for the semiconductor chips used in AI. Silver prices have since eased noticeably.