Coherent photoproduction of eta -mesons from the deuteron has been measured
from threshold up to E-gamma approximate to 750 MeV using the photon spect
rometer TAPS at the tagged photon facility at the Mainz microtron MAMI. For
the first time, differential coherent cross-sections have been deduced fro
m the coincident detection of the eta -meson and the recoil deuteron. A mis
sing-energy analysis was used for the suppression of background events so t
hat a very clean identification of coherent eta -photoproduction was achiev
ed. The resulting cross-sections agree with previous experimental results e
xcept for angles around 90 degrees in the gammad c.m. system where they are
smaller. They are compared to various model calculations.