20 Mark Brandenburg Gate

Issued in 1990 by East Germany's Staatliche Münze Berlin, this piece was struck in the final months before German reunification dissolved the GDR entirely. The Brandenburg Gate had been sealed and inaccessible for nearly three decades — embedded in the death strip between East and West Berlin — making its appearance on an East German coin at precisely this moment a striking political irony.

The 20 Mark denomination was the highest circulating coin the GDR regularly issued, and nickel brass was adopted for it relatively late in the republic's coinage history.