1000-mark note

but it's foreign.

 

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Looks to be in superb condition. Care to elaborate (for the vastly ignorant, like me) as to what it is you have?

 

It is a Thousand Mark Reichsbanknote

 

Here's some info on this one https://www.leftovercurrency.com/1000-mark-reichsbanknote-1910-value/

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks for the link. It said one sold for.99 pounds. What's that in real money?

 

OOOPS!

 

My paper this morning quoted Sterling @ $1.13 plus a hair. So your banknote could have been gotten for ~$1.12. Plus shipping. Hope yours came cheaper!

 

Mine was free.

 

Beautiful old note. I believe these are common, but it’s in great shape. A keeper for sure.

 

P-44b 7 digit serial number, red seal
P-45a & b have the green seal

http://www.banknote.ws/COLLECTION/countries/EUR/GER/GER-RBD.htm#1910 Issue

and: https://coinsite.com/1910-german-1000-mark-note/

 

Nice old note, and a piece of history, if you care about Germany during the end of what we also call the Belle Epoque (Wikipedia here, if you do not know the period).

Without actually seeing it in person, allow me to suggest that it is not "superb." It has a couple of folds.

It was folded into thirds long ago. That said, it did not see much circulation and is still worth a dollar (or a pound) if you do not have one for yourself.

As said above by Seattlite86, the notes are common. As cited in the article from LeftOverCurrency, you might consider them "official counterfeits" because they were originally backed in gold (in 1910), but World War I changed that and the authorities just printed more.
Red Seal 1000 Mark Reichsbanknote: dated 1910, issued during World War I
The red sealed 1000 Mark Reichsbanknotes dated 1910 were printed until the end of World War I. This is a crucial piece of information when it comes to valuing them. Their value was not covered by gold reserves. These banknotes were printed in very large quantities to fund the war.

In order to get a handle on the original value, LeftOver sez that one mark was .358 grams of gold. So what? Well... with 31.1 grams to the ounce, one ounce was 86.87 Marks at a time when one ounce was $20 or 5 UK Pounds or 100 Swiss (French, etc.) Francs (give or take). So, 1000 Marks was like $230 give or take, at time when, say, a cowboy made $20 a month or a steelworker in the USA earned 10 cents an hour, $1 a day, for a 10-hour day ... ummmm 6 day workweek, you understand. A 72-hour work week was not uncommon. See here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106020105711;view=1up;seq=9

While we think of the German hyperinflation of the 1920s, in fact World War I bankrupted everyone. They all went off the gold standard. The British had the best silver coins in the world .925 fine (versus .900 for the USA and Germany and .825 for France, etc.). But after "winning" World War I, British coinage dropped to .500-fine and most of the other nations (except the US and Canada), gave it up entirely.

 

Thanks everyone. I'm definitely going to keep it.

 

Australia kept Sterling -.925 Fine-silver coins until 1945 inclusive. Then it was .500 Fine until 1963 when pre decimals ended and cupro nickel heralded our decimal age in 1966.

 

Found this one eBay a few years back; always like the pre-1920s deluge of notes;