20 Mark - Carl Eduard

Carl Eduard became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1900 at age sixteen following the death of his uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh — himself the second son of Queen Victoria. The duchy required a German heir precisely because Alfred's only son had died by suicide in 1899, leaving Carl Eduard, a British prince raised in England, suddenly ruler of a minor German state he barely knew. He would later renounce his British titles during the First World War under considerable pressure from both governments.

The 1905 issue is the first gold coinage struck in his name, produced when he had only recently reached majority.