10 Euros Grimm's Fairy Tales, Silver Proof Issue

Germany's commemorative euro silver proofs of this period used a .625 fineness rather than the more common .925 sterling, a deliberate Bundesbank cost-management decision that drew criticism from collector organizations at the time. The 2012 Grimm's Fairy Tales issue was released to mark the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812 — the Brothers Grimm having compiled that first edition while based in Kassel, drawing heavily on middle-class informants rather than the rural peasantry the collection's reputation implies.