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Germany
100th anniversary of Carl Zeiss’ death
1988 F
BU Silver 10 Marks 32.5mm (15.40 grams) 0.625 Silver (0.3115 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 169
BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND 1988 10 DEUTSCHE MARK F, An eagle, emblem of the German Federal Republic
CARL ZEISS 1816 – 1888, Portrait of Carl Zeiss, an optician engineer born in Weimar on September 11th, 1816. Founder of the Zeiss society, he died in 1888. Illustration of Carl Zeiss’ microscope.
Edge Lettering:
OPTIK FÜR WISSENSCHAFT UND TECHNIK
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 Carl Zeiss (11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman who founded the workshop of Carl Zeiss in 1846, which is still in business today as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practical and theoretical opticians and glass makers to reshape most aspects of optical instrument production. His collaboration with Ernst Abbe revolutionized optical theory and practical design of microscopes. Their quest to extend these advances brought Otto Schott into the enterprises to revolutionize optical glass manufacture. The firm of Carl Zeiss grew to one of the largest and most respected optical firms in the world.
After mastering the problem of producing objectives based on theoretical calculation one problem remained, namely the production of suitable optical glass. At the time optical glass was obtained from England, France or Switzerland and left much to be desired in quality, reliable availability, selection of optical properties and prompt delivery. The optical properties were not consistent from batch to batch and, as important, those glasses which could be obtained were not ideal for the properties calculated to give the best correction in a microscope objective.
Abbe and Zeiss were convinced that the optical qualities of the microscope objective could be improved further if glasses with certain properties could be obtained. Unfortunately, no such glasses existed. Zeiss once again supported Abbe in his theoretical work with the resources of the workshop to produce objectives using liquids in lens triplets to test his theory by 1873, known as polyop objectives in the workshop. Liquid lens triplets were not a new idea. David Brewster describes them in his Treatise on the Microscope of 1837 for the Encyclopædia Britannica. They allow access to several optical properties which are not accessible in glasses. Unfortunately, they are not commercially viable. These expensive and commercially useless experiments proved that Abbe’s prediction was correct. Superior optical corrections were possible. Abbe and Zeiss’ 1872 series of objectives, including the water immersion objectives, were as good as anything made at the time. For the first time, these objectives were better than anything made anywhere. This result provided the argument for developing new glasses.
Abbe discussed the problem of expanding the range of properties of optical glasses with the major producers no success but he continued to search for a way forward. Zeiss and Abbe responded very enthusiastically to the enquiries of the chemist and glass technician Otto Schott when Schott contacted Abbe to seek help characterizing new chemical compositions in glasses. Schott was uniquely skilled at producing small batches of experimental glass compositions in high quality. He was convinced to move to Jena and expand his experiments. After demonstrating dozens of successful experiments, Zeiss used his credibility and connections to obtain financial support from the Prussian government for the efforts. Within two years of the establishment of a glassworks in Jena, Zeiss, Abbe and Schott could offer dozens of well characterized optical glasses with repeatable composition and on large scale. The firm still operates as Schott AG.
In the same publications announcing the Schott glassworks line of products, Zeiss announced a new set of objectives, based on Abbe’s work, corrected to a higher standard than any existing lenses. The apochromatic objectives represented the success of collaborations lasting almost two decades.
  Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic in western-central Europe. It includes 16 constituent states and covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi) with a largely temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Berlin. With 81 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state in the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular migration destination in the world.
Various Germanic tribes have occupied northern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before 100 CE. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation.
The rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states in 1871 into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918-1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The establishment of the Third Reich in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After 1945, Germany split into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990, the country was reunified.
 In the 21st century, Germany is a great power and has the world’s fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the fifth-largest by PPP. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world’s third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a developed country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled and productive society. It upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection and a tuition free university education.
Germany was a founding member of the European Union in 1993. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential artists, philosophers, musicians, sportsmen, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors.
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