Two Marks 1981 Kurt Schumacher, Coin from Germany - detailed information

The Two Marks coin, abbreviated 2 DM and known in English as 2 German Marks, was a relatively large circulating denomination of the Deutsche Mark (German mark), which was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until 2002.

The initial design was similar to the 1 Mark coin and was only issued in 1951. It was superseded by a design honouring Max Planck, which was issued between 1957 and 1971.

Those earlier coins were made of CuproNickel and were confusing to vending machines (which mistakenly accepted cheap foreign coins instead of 2 DM), so were demonetized in 1973 and replaced by a new series of coins called the "politicians series" because it depicts portraits of German politicians on the obverse. These coins are three-layered: CuproNickel with a Nickel core, which makes them magnetic unlike the earlier ones.

This third type of new coins honours Dr. Kurt Schumacher (1895 - 1952), a German social democratic politician who served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1946 and was the first Leader of the Opposition in the West German Bundestag from 1949 until his death in 1952. An opponent of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's government, but an even stronger opponent of the East German Socialist Unity Party and communism in general, he was one of the founding fathers of post-war German democracy.

Other coins of the "politicians series" include:
- Konrad Adenauer, 1969 - 1987
- Theodor Heuss, 1970 - 1987
- Ludwig Erhard, 1988 - 2001
- Franz Josef Strauß (Strauss), 1990 - 2001
- Willy Brandt, 1994 - 2001

Note that the introduction of new designs did not supplant the previous ones; older designs continued to be issued and used in parallel.

The edge inscription was the same throughout the history of the denomination: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit, meaning "Unity and Justice and Freedom".

In 1999, the Deutsche Mark was replaced by the Euro; its coins and banknotes remained in circulation, defined in terms of euros, until the introduction of euro notes and coins on 1 January 2002. The Deutsche Mark ceased to be legal tender immediately upon the introduction of the euro.

2 German Mark coins of the Kurt Schumacher type issued in 1981 circulated for 21 years until 28 February 2002, after which date they were no longer accepted as valid forms of payment in Germany.