2016 Germany €20 Silver Coin Issue "Song of Germany (National Anthem) 175 Years"

• Mint: Hamburg (J)
• Denomination: €20
• Quality: Proof/UNC
• Limit: 175,000/800,000
• Alloy: 92.5% Sterling Silver
• Diameter: 32.5 mm
• Weight: 18 grams
• Design: Claudius Riedmiller
• Box/Capsule: No/Yes
• Certificate: Proof in printed folder
• Edge Lettering: "SIND DES GLUECKES UNTERPFAND" (They Are the Pledge of Happiness – words from the German national anthem)
• Please note that the stock photo is of the proof version.

This issue honors the 175th anniversary of Germany’s national anthem, Deautschlandlied (Song of Germany).

The lyrics to the German national anthem were written by August Heinrich Hoffman in 1841 to be sung along to a melody written by the famous Austrian composer Joseph Haydn in 1797. Hoffman, who penned his homeland’s national anthem when Germany was still composed of multiple states and kingdoms ruled by monarchies, desired that his nation be united by a common law and freedom. This soaring sense of patriotism bleeds through the anthem and glorifies a unified Germany rather than wealth and prominence of individual kingdoms.

Interestingly, Germany as a unified nation would not exist until 1871 - three decades after Hoffman wrote the anthem. German President Friedrich Ebert officially adopted "Deutschlandlied" as the national anthem in 1922.

The reverse features a portrait of August Heinrich Hoffman and the inscription EINIGKEIT UND RECHT UND FREIHEIT (“unity and justice and freedom”), the words from the third stanza of the national anthem, which also represent the unofficial national motto of Germany. The phrase 175 JAHRE DEUTSCHLANDLIED (175th Anniversary of Deutschlandlied) is inscribed along the top. The Bundesadler or Federal Eagle from Germany’s coat of arms centrally anchors the obverse.