The face of the coin shows the three central elements of the famous fairy tale. On the left the miller's daughter with spindle, in the center Rumpelstiltskin, and on the right the cradle of the royal infant. The thread looped over the little man's finger is a clever idea by the artist Katrin Pannicke from Halle (Saale): "During the design, I had the idea of using the thread that Rumpelstiltskin spins from straw into gold as the 'red thread' of the story and as to use an element of image design. He connects the triangle of miller’s daughter, cradle and the main actor.”
Almost every child knows the story of Rumpelstiltskin and the miller's daughter. Even if, as is not unusual for old German fairy tales, it contains very dark and cruel elements: a greedy miller forces his daughter on a king by lying to him about the young woman can spin straw into gold. The equally greedy king sets her the task several times of spinning a chamber full of straw into gold overnight. If she fails, he threatens her with nothing less than death.
In her desperation, the miller's daughter relies on the help of a mysterious man. Two nights in a row he turns the straw into gold for her for a small price. But on the third night he demands her firstborn child if she gets one from the king. The woman, still without a choice, agrees. The king then happily takes her as his wife, and they soon have a child.
Where fox and hare say good night
However, the playful goblin gives the royal couple one chance to keep the child: they have to guess his name. Seemingly impossible until a loyal servant finds the little man in his hidden house, “where fox and hare say goodnight.” Rumpelstiltskin dances and sings confidently: “Oh, how good that no one knows that my name is Rumpelstiltskin.” This is how the royal parents solve the riddle and their plight – and Rumpelstiltskin tears himself apart in blind rage.
