These notes were introduced by the German Wehrmacht in Poland after the surprise attack on Poland that was followed with the complete capitulation of the Polish Army in 3 weeks in 1939. These rare occupation banknotes with the seal of the Wehrmacht on German and Polish banknotes can be viewed at the link below: http://navonanumis.blogspot.com/2014/02/outbreak-of-world-war-ii-nazi.html B. Vinod www.navonanumis.blogspot.com
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you have fantasy overprints on genuine notes. These have been coming on the market for the last five years or so. Someone has been taking common notes and placing these overstamps on notes in an attempt to drive up value. If you can read German, you will see that German paper money discussion boards have been ranting about these notes since 2007. Here is one such discussion. http://www.banknotesworld.com/threa...hreadview=0&hilight=jude&hilightuser=0&page=1 None of the German paper money catalogs recognize these notes as genuine and no reputable dealers sell them as genuine overprints. They are all over Ebay mostly from the same sellers. Some of the overprints are applied using handstamps, some are done with color printers. These overstamps have appeared on countless notes -- many of which do not make sense. Here are some on Allied Military Lire notes: How can you tell these are fantasies? History. The Reichsbank was very strict about circulation of Reichsbank notes. Notes from the Reichsbank were prohibited from being taken out of the country. Reichsbank notes were not used as occupation currency anywhere. The only place they were used outside Germany was the small area of Belgium annexed by Germany (Eupen-Malmedy). The German used notes from the Reichskreditkasse as occupation currency outside of Germany. The German military had its own currency that was used outside Germany. These are the Auxiliary Payment Certificate (Pick M31-37) and the Clearing Notes (Pick M38-41). The only notes of these type that were overstamped were the Auxiliary Payment Certificates used in Greece. These are overstamped on the back with a German overstamp and a Greek overstamp. Be wary, however, because the fakers have started putting these stamps on the German military notes. Let's look at some of the notes in your blog and the overstamps on those notes. First is the 5 RM note first issued in 1942. Aside from being first issued three years after the invasion of Poland, the unit identified on the overstamp (the First Paratrooper Anti-Aircraft Division -- Fallschirm Flak Abteilung 1) was not formed until 1940 and served in France and Italy. The next notes are Reichsbank notes overstamped for the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth". This division was not formed until 1943 and also only served in the Western Front. Included among the notes with this stamp is a 20 RM note (Pick 185). Although dated 1939, this note was not first issued until January 1945. Here is a listing from an auction site for the handstamp for the Ratibor overprint. http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=401578425 Here is a discussion on a German militaria forum about the same handstamp. http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=33219 The Breslau stamp is for the German Red Cross (Rotes Kreuz) not a military unit. Finally, the Jude-Warschau note. This is where it all began. When the fantasy overprints first hit the market in 2007-2008, they were almost all supposed to be from concentration camps and ghettos. These stamps appeared on Polish notes, Hungarian notes, Bohemia and Moravia, etc. The Jewish ghettoes were not segregated from the economies of the surrounding areas. There was no reason to segregate currency for use in the ghettoes.
Only slight correction on Lettow's very informative post. I believe that in Luxembourg all the Luxembourg francs were called in and only Reichsmarks were permitted to circulate as from 1942 Luxembourg was annexed into Germany. There are also some overprints on Polish notes from the UPA in Ukraine and some other partisan units that are highly suspect of being created long after the war ended.
Very interesting info. I'm more of a German coin guy from this era, I have never purchased any paper currency...but I have looked at it online and I have always been concerned about many of those stamped notes. They just didn't make sense to me...now I know why.
Kind of funny, I own : And: But they really give me the creeps because of the swastika. I am not Jewish, nor do I play Jewish on TV - these things are just associated with evil. But they do tell a story - the German note is a stolen design that was supposed to be used for the Austrian 100 schilling note in 1938, the Ukraine note used primarily German language text with only token amount of Ukrainian language. The plan was that the Reichskommisariat Ukraine was going to eventually be de-populated of all but slave labour, and populated with aryans.
Very interesting pieces. I do agree...there is something creepy about them. I have long had an interest with this era in European history so I have a handful of high grade Third Reich coinage...as well as a couple other historical pieces. It's an interesting tangible piece of a very sad time in our history.
I'll tell you what is really creepy is going places like Napoleon's tomb and standing at the front overlook at his sarcophagus and years later seeing a photograph of Adolf Hitler standing at that very spot in June 1940.
