Post Your Inflation Era Coins and Bills

I've always had an interest in inflation Era coinage because they usually circulate during an important historical period following some kind of a tragedy and because they are usually pretty cheap considering a lot of them were minted. I got this coin for Christmas and I figured I'd share it with you all.

1923 Wiemar Republic (Germany) 500 Mark
Obverse: Denomination above date
Reverse: Eagle

During WWI Germany made the decision to fund the war effort by borrowing, assuming they would be able to pay the money back with the spoils of their victory. When they lost the war they were straddled with debt as well as reparations amounting to 132 billion Gold Marks. The German government also decided to mint coins out of less expensive metals such as aluminum and zinc. The result of all this was inflation. Germany adopted a strategy of printing as much money as possible to buy foreign currency to pay their reparations.


Stacks of nearly worthless paper marks during the hyperinflation period of 1923 (curtesy of Wikipedia)

When they could no longer afford to pay after the paper mark became worthless, France and Belgium occupied the industrial heart of Germany in order to force payment in other commodities such as coal. The resulting strikes and resistance led to hyperinflation of a magnitude that had never been seen before. See below for a timeline of the inflation and mark values vs. USD.

1919 - $1 = 48 Marks
May 1921 - $1 = 90 Marks
June 1921 - $1 = 330 Marks
June 1922 - $1 = 320 Marks
December 1922 - $1 = 7,400 Marks
November 1923 - $1 = 4,210,500,000,000 Marks

It was during the worst of the inflationary period that the above coin was minted in Aluminum and was worth no more than the metal itself. It is very light in the hand and the quality is not up to the standards of the pre-war coinage. To me this doesn't detract from its interest as it is a product of the circumstances it was made under. The inflation was finally stabilized in early 1924 by the introduction of the Rentenmark.

So what do you think? Post your inflationary coins and bills!

 

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At least German sarcasm didn't suffer:



It is the famous ducat defecating donkey from Paderborn.

 

As for when the coin was planned and when it was issued, see here. Fine example of futility ...

Christian

 

Thanks for the responses everyone!

I hadn't seen this bill before but that's hilarious. A quick google search didn't turn up much info on what the designer was trying to say. I am assuming a political statement of some kind and not just 7th grade humor but since I can't read German I'll have to look into it more.

I also wanted to encourage anyone with coins or bills from any timeframe or country to post your inflation related items (not restricted to post WWI Germany ). For example:

Here is a pair of ancient coins in my collection from the Roman Empire under the reign of Elagabalus.

218 - 222 AD Denarius
Wt. = 3.26 grams


218 AD Antoninianus
Wt. = 4.5 grams.

The antoninianus was valued at two denarii but was not twice the silver content. People then hoarded the denarii and prices rose to compensate for the new inferior coins.

 

That's called Gresham's Law: bad money drives out good.

 

A note about the note from Paderborn: The donkey is from a fairy tale. And the motto is pretty funny; it is not in standard German but some local Westphalian variety. "A donkey that defecates ducats - now that we do not have in Paderborn, but there are plenty of donkeys (= asinine people) in the world who buy our paper money."

In those years many notgeld bills were not issued as means of payment but with collectors in mind. That is why quite a few have very colorful designs, local references. Similarly, the Westfalen pieces such as the one shown in #3 were not meant for circulation but issued as fundraisers.

Christian

 

Hamburg.
200000 mark 1923 (August).

 

Austria.
1000 kronen 1924.

One year later it became 10 groshen.

 

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/wesphalian-set-1921-1923.284727/

 

Awesome coins Seba. I also really like the wood case you have them in. Did you make that?

 

Not as nice as some above, but I really like the size

 

Thanks, the wood case its a friend gift.

 

I'm not a big paper money collector but I happen to like stuff like this, so I'll have some to share. I just have to scan it. Here's a few to begin with.

 

Here's some from WWI era.

 

More WWI

 

I was going to ask you to translate that. Danke. Also I ran into this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-of-RARE...hash=item33c153d1c9:m:mw6oNVLwaY04LvS6UOG_GAg

 

Here's three more. 1944 Greece 500000 drachmai, 1945 Hungary 10 million pengo, and 1992 Yugoslavia 50,000 dinara.

 

You can see larger images of those Paderborn notes here for example:
http://www.padersite.de/notgeld.php

Each of those notgeld bills comes with a short ironic poem; two rough translations:
http://www.padersite.de/notgeld011.html
From the cathedral treasure the Tolle Christian (see the second paragraph here ) had gold ducats made. Now gold has become scarce, but paper we have enough.
http://www.padersite.de/notgeld014.html
Even if it has become fashionable to walk past Paderborn (i.e. to not go or stop there), then at least join the fun and buy this little note.

Christian