Per Wikipedia: In 1922, inflation started to get out of control in Germany, culminating in hyperinflation. Throughout the year, the value of the mark deteriorated faster and faster and new money in higher denominations was issued constantly. The Reichsbank could not cope with the logistics of providing the necessary supply of money, and Notgeld was again issued—this time in denominations of hundreds and then thousands of Marks. By July 1923, the Reichsbank had lost control of the economy. Notgeld flooded the economy, being issued by any city, town, business, or club that had access to a printing press, in order to meet the insatiable rise in prices. Even Serienscheine were being hand-stamped with large denominations to meet the demand. By September, Notgeld was denominated in the tens of millions; by October, in billions; by November, trillions. The notgeld from Westphalia has interested me for awhile for its large sizes and massive denominations. In the span of two years, they went from values of 50 Pfennig to 1 billion Marks. In the last year, 1923, they rapidly increased from hundreds to billions. In February of 1923, 500 Marks could not buy a loaf of bread. I so far have acquired 7 different types of Westphalia notgeld but there are still plenty more to go. Trying to collect these on a budget can be difficult. If you have any other denominations that aren't shown here. Please feel free to share them. Thanks for looking! 1921 Westphalia Notgeld 50 Pfennig Aluminum 24mm/1.29g Mintage: 258,023 1921 Westphalia Notgeld 5 Marks Aluminum 32mm/3.50g Mintage: 120,753 1921 Westphalia Notgeld 10 Marks Bronze 38mm/19g Mintage: 116,489 1922 Westphalia Notgeld 500 Marks Tombac 38mm/19.4g Mintage: 57,593 1923 Westphalia Notgeld 500 Marks Tombac 38.3mm/19.48g Mintage: 65,117 1923 Westphalia Notgeld 10,000 Marks Tombac 44.5mm/31.7g Mintage: 315,809 1923 Westphalia Notgeld 50,000,000 Marks Aluminum 44mm/8g Mintage: 78,464
Beautiful, historic coins! I had to look up "Tombac". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombac I'm glad I have some gold...just in case.
These are fun. I have one of the 10K-mark pieces. Nice great big thing. You've gotta love that prancing horsie. Giddyup!
Good stuff. Glad I'm not the only one who likes these horsey-bucks Hopefully I can track down some of the higher denominations. Trying to keep it ~$10 per coin is definitely difficult.
I saw your aluminum one and didn't pay attention to the denomination. Mine is actually a Gilt Bronze. I didn't realize they made them in multiple compositions.
Yup. Looking at numista, the gilt bronze had a slightly higher mintage https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces20935.html vs the aluminum https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces32474.html That's what makes this set hard to complete. Lots of different variations.
I would have had to look up Tombac if I hadn't started collecting Canadian nickels decades ago. Until today I didn't realize it had been used in other countries. My father brought back a 50 million aluminum "Prancing horse" from his time in Germany during WW II but it's buried somewhere in the black hole I call my office. Steve
Ah, yes - reminds me of this coin I was REALLY excited to pick up. Wanted to keep it in my collection because I really enjoyed the design, and the condition was gem (much better than the worn examples I typically saw.) Sent it in to NGC and had my hopes and dreams crushed... ...not because of the grade, mind you - it came back in an MS65 slab. No, my day was ruined because the coin came back different than when I sent it in. The color temp is a bit different (photographer's fault - me) but see if you can "spot" why I wasn't happy with the coin I got back from NGC. Before After In case anyone asks, yes, I did call NGC to complain, and while I don't remember exactly what their response was, I do remember their attitude was basically "not our fault, not our problem, have a nice day."