I was browsing vcoins and noticed this one: http://www.vcoins.com/world/moneta/store/viewitem.asp?idProduct=66 Germany 1916 Medal Government Request to Turn in Gold and Valuables What the? Don't tell me their Government actually traded cheap metal medals for folks' valuables! Unless it happened, then tell me.. If anyone knows the story, please share..
Pretty much the same as certain "Support Our Troops" slogans in a different country much more recently. In order to not appear "unpatriotic", people donated gold and got an iron medal, button, etc. as a token of appreciation. That button, or whatever, you could then proudly wear - and people who still had gold, even wore it in public, would appear to not support the "nation's common goal" or whatever the propaganda says. Such initiatives predate WW1 though. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_gab_ich_für_Eisen Christian
I saw one of those the other day, its very cool and that one is in great shape! I also like the hyperinflation medals that look similar and have a stark scene on one side and lists the ridiculously high price of different things like bread on the other side
I have some inflationary notes that were passed down through the wife's family, already framed. What's interesting to me is that they're each separated by about half a year or so, and you quite easily see that the complexity of note design was rapidly decreasing as the face value traveled the other direction. Those had to have been scary times; good thing we are paid in almighty dollars 'round here :rolling:
yeah...the sad part was, in the end, they introduced the Rentenmark and the exchange rate for the Reichsbanknote was something like 1 trillion (short scale) to 1 so any money one might have had BEFORE the hyperinflation would have been essentially worthless, you might have been able to make a few Rentenmark with what you had in hyperinflation notes...but in essence, if you didnt get it out well before, you lost most everything...it was a tough time in Germany, with a few exceptions, between 1914 and 1924/5
