I need help with authenticity and value of these two notes. These were offered to me by a family friend. I have very little experience with confederate and foreign notes. Any information and approximate value would be greatly appreciated.
Both look real, the CSA note certainly is. Seems like it is in good condition. It is the most common CSA note I believe, but yours looks like a quality example. Can't say for the German note (though my intuition tells me it is worth almost nothing), the CSA note is probably $40 to $50 if it is as nice as it appears from the picture.
The CSA is very nice. The possible “bleed through” writing on the bottom left reverse bothered me a little. But, that finding must be common because of the fountain pens used in the 19th Century. I’ll explain the situation with the German note. Perhaps it can be “donated”. Thank you again MEC2!
An easy way to flush out most (not all) of the reproduction CSA and Revolutionary notes is to look at the serial number and signature. If they are on the note, but ARE NOT handwritten in ink, they're fakes. I believe your German note is relatively common and may not worth much in that condition (but I don't have any references handy to check)
Another quick search here; http://www.crutchwilliams.com/BogusCSA_RoTx.html can also help determining the authenticity of CSA notes
I can't say anything about the German note as I have no experience in them. The CSA note is genuine and horses pulling cannons is the most common. The signatures are correct. The serial number is 49,620. Issued in 1964. There is some staining on the reverse. A photo would not show pin holes and that while acceptable lowers the value as do the stains. The first CSA note I bought was exactly like yours. I now own a small but growing collection of CSA notes, some of which are quite pricy. I look for rare, unusual and error CSA notes. Also, the cutting of these notes was done by hand. The left side of the bill is not showing but along the top right the cutting is slightly into the frame lines. On the right hand side at the top, a fairly large piece of the bill has been trimmed into the bill itself. This lowers the value considerably. I would place a top value of $30.00 due to the cutting of the bill and the stains on the reverse. Condition is everything on CSA notes. Hopes this helps you.
The German banknote is 1000 Mark, and with a seven-number serial number is from 1916-1922. It’s only worth a buck or two.
Back about 1960 I started buying CSA notes (and Repubic of Texas) and that $10 note could be had for $1 in Unc consec. issue. I'm glad to say I kept that stuff. At my age it's nice to have done somethings right. I expected the prices to jump during C. War centenial, but they diden't move. (Were I live, "diden't" usto be a real word.)
On the date given as the issue date on the German bill, the 1000 marks could have been taken to a bank and exchanged for 50 twenty mark gold coins, for a total of 10.2 ounces of gold. At $20 per ounce that would have been about $200 US at the time, or about $13,000 in gold today. But Germany paid for World War I almost entirely by borrowing instead of taxing, expecting to pay it back out of reparations when they won. When they lost World War I they were saddled with huge debts, both as reparations under the Treaty of Paris, payable in gold to the Allies, and as war bonds, payable in marks. With no money to pay the bonds, the Government let the German mark inflate. Worth about 4.2 marks to the then current US dollar in 1914, by early 1923 your bill would have been worth about a US dime. By November 1923 they were trading at 4.2 trillion marks to $1 US. It would have taken 4,200,000,000 of your bills to be worth a dollar. In theory, this made the billions in war bonds payable out of pocket change. The story is told as true that a woman who could not easily enter a crowded store with her basket of cash just left it on the street while she shopped. Sure enough, when she returned someone had stolen her basket. But they left the money. In November 1923 they started over with a new currency. Many of the trillions of worthless paper bills were eventually recycled as scrap paper. These bills are still extremely common, but I love the history behind them.
That is truly an amazing account of the history behind these bills. It reminds me of the old saying “it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on”.
The reparations were made in Goldmark, which was the Mark backed by gold. The Papiermark was the one they switched to after the war, but the reparations still had to be paid in Goldmark.
Germany was required to pay 132 million marks (33 million in US$) by the Treaty of Versilies in 1919. Payment was in cash of kind but the 1919 agreement was in Gold Marks. Three bonds were set to pay this debt. The last payment was paid on Oct. 3, 2010 by Germany. The other countries fighting with Germany either pay off their debt long ago or the debt was forgiven.
True, reparations were required to be paid in gold, or in foreign currency such as British pounds exchangeable for gold. This made it all but impossible to pay the cash war bonds not required to be paid in goldmarks or to conduct normal government. This was especially true when they lost control of some of their most important industrial territories. I understand they issued more bonds to try to raise foreign currency which could be used to pay the reparations. There is a lesson to be learned here about having too much debt and trying to print too much paper to pay that debt. Paper works fine as long as a country has sufficient assets to cover it. That need not be specie. In fact, economic production of goods and services is the real source of wealth of any nation. But Germany lost both specie and economic production and tried to cover it with tons of paper, hence the OP's paper only has slight collector value.
The 1910 note with green serial numbers was redeemable in gold when issued. The note with red serial numbers was never redeemable in gold.
Same here... lately I read the "red" seal was the original... and all along I thought the "green" seal was first and the "red" inflationary.