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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lettow, post: 997084, member: 6986&quot;]I will be the bearer of bad news. The notes are genuine notes but the overstamps are fantasies.&nbsp; An understanding of the history and background of German financing of the war and the paper money issued during the war will show why the overstamps are not genuine.</p><p><br /></p><p>The notes in the OP are a one rentenmark and a five reichsmark note.&nbsp; These notes were issued by the Rentenbank and the Reichsbank for circulation in Germany itself prior to the war.&nbsp; In 1934, the German finance ministry and the Reichsbank imposed strict currency controls over the RM.&nbsp; It became inconvertible and could not be taken out of&nbsp; Germany.&nbsp; These restrictions were so complete that special paper money known as Bordanweisungen (ship&#039;s money orders) was used on German cruise ships during the 1930s to keep RM notes from leaving the country.</p><p><br /></p><p>After the war began, the Germans created an office, the Reichskreditkassen (the Reich Credit Office), which was responsible for issuing RM denominated notes in the occupied parts of Europe.&nbsp; These notes are known as Reichkreditkassenschein and here is an example of one.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/germany/gerr138f.JPG" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The Reichskreditkassenschein were issued in Poland during the war as occupation currency.&nbsp; The Germans used these notes in many places in Europe (the Channel Islands, France, Greece, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, etc.) and forced them upon the local populace in the same manner that JIM notes were forced on the locals in Japanese occupied countries.&nbsp; The Reichskreditkassenschein were withdrawn in most places in Europe once the Germans were able to obtain sufficient local currency or were able to establish German controlled note issuing banks in the occupied countries.&nbsp; The only places in Europe that RM notes circulated outside Germany during the war was the Eupen Malmedy area of Belgium and in parts of Luxemburg that were annexed into Germany.</p><p><br /></p><p>In Poland, the German controlled note issuing authority was the Bank Emisyjny w Polsce (Emission Bank of Poland).&nbsp; Here is an example of the notes from this bank.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/poland/PolandP93-5Zlotych-1940-donatedtj_f.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>These notes did circulate in Poland including in the Warsaw Ghetto.&nbsp; These notes are known to have propaganda overprints that were applied by the Poles during the Ghetto Uprising.&nbsp; Genuine overprints are scarce and copies have come on the market in the last few years.</p><p><br /></p><p>The German military also did not use RM notes in occupied countries.&nbsp; The German Army had two different distinct types of paper money that it used during the war.&nbsp; The first were Behelfszahlungsmittel (Auxilliary Payment Certificates) and the other were Verrechnungsschein fur die Deutsche Wehrmacht (Clearing Coupons for the German Army).&nbsp; Here are examples of both of these.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/germany/GermanyPM35-50ReichsPfennig-(1942)-donated.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/germany/GermanyPM38-1Reichsmark-1944_f.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I bring up these notes because there are also fantasy overprints on RM notes in the market from German military units.&nbsp; You will usually see these as SS and death&#039;s head units.&nbsp; Stay away from these also.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for the Oranienburg stamp, Oranienburg was the site of the first concentration camp established by the Germans before the war.&nbsp; Oranienburg is located in Germany itself.&nbsp; The Germans issued notes specifically for use in the Oranienburg camp.&nbsp; These notes look nothing like the RM notes used in the rest of Germany.&nbsp; More importantly, Oranienburg was closed in 1934 before the OPs notes were even issued.</p><p><br /></p><p>You will not find any of these notes in either WWII Remembered or Silent Witnesses.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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