10 Euros Hänsel and Gretel, Silver Proof Issue

Part of the German federal collector series commemorating Brothers Grimm fairy tales, this issue was struck in a curious silver-copper alloy — .625 fine — rather than the .925 standard typical of German silver commemoratives. The lower fineness was a deliberate policy choice tied to face value and legal tender economics, keeping production costs aligned with the nominal 10-euro denomination while maintaining a silver-content product.

The Grimm tales themselves were first published in 1812, collected from oral sources across Hesse and neighboring regions. "Hänsel und Gretel" drew partly from famine-era anxieties; child abandonment during food shortages was not a fantasy trope but a documented reality in early 19th-century Germany.