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 Replies: 12 / Views: 7,829 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
624 Posts |
I have done a lot of research on this topic in the past two days but am still stuck wondering what this find may be worth on today's market. My fiance's grandmother emailed me a few weeks ago to tell me she had some German Marks for me to look at. I responded back saying that I would love to look at her coins. She responded that they were not coins. Then when my fiance brought them home the other night I was perplexed. There were rolls of paper that looked like old newspapers. These were printed in September 1922 during the start of the extreme hyperinflation of German currency that made it crash in 1923, and completely replaced in 1924. They are bonds for 20,000 Marks each with 57 individual coupons that can be returned every 6 months for almost 30 years. The problem was that by the time you could cash the first one in 6 months later they weren't worth the paper they were printed on. And by the time you could cash in the 3rd one they were no longer legal currency. So I now have a stack of 20,000 Mark notes that are almost 100 years old. I assume most other similar notes were discarded, burned, lost or destroyed. There are also great pictures online of Germans wallpapering their homes with the old money because it was actually cheaper than wallpaper. (cough... Venezuela next year) I have been flattening these out because they have been rolled up for at least 20 years. There are few slight bends and folds in two of them. There are 7 of these total. 4 are Sequentially numbered 00628, 00629, 00630, 00631 and three others are in the same ball park. 00643, 00636, 00638. All are complete, and hand signed. I found one identical one online listed for 49.00 which was a much higher serial number and not in as good of shape. Is there any value to these for collectors?     |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8137 Posts |
I don't know what they are worth, but those look really cool! What a great piece of history.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
624 Posts |
That is my thought as well. I had never seen anything like them, and the fact they were so sell preserved after going though one of the worst financial crashes in modern history makes them that much cooler to me.
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Valued Member
United States
262 Posts |
They look great! I have seen a lot of separate pieces from this time period, but this is the first time I have seen uncut sheets!  Unfortunately I can't help with a monetary value, but thank you for letting us see them. It is interesting that some of the writing on the Berlin one has an english translation "Four hundred Marks" instead of just "Vierhundert Mark" Edited by Spott
12/06/2016 2:54 pm
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Valued Member
Germany
303 Posts |
I've got a couple of similar Bonds at a local auction here in Berlin in October. However, my Bonds were not issued by the city of Berlin but have printed "Deutsches Reich" (German Empire on them). I guess that this Berlin issue might be not as common as the ones that I have. Still, I sold one of mine on ebay for almost 30 $ (smaller denomination though). So I suppose you could get 50 $ but I wouldnt assume that these sell quickly. Here in Germany the prices for these bonds are even lower (which is probably due to the fact that there still exist rather large numbers of them and probably there arent too many collectors out there. As you've mentioned, in 1922 these bonds and most inflation banknotes were not worth too much. Of course, a result was that people used that stuff for all sorts of things but payment. As you've mentioned, people burned that stuff in order to heat their appartments. Anyway, stacking large bundles of these banknotes or bonds wasnt a large financial disadvantage either. I guess many people just kept them as keepsake which is why there is still a lot of that stuff around here. To cut a long story short, nice find :) Best regards from Berlin |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
992 Posts |
Scripophily, the collecting of stocks and bonds for their history and appearance, has a dedicated following. $50 is a good value for these, and it rises according to rarity, condition and couponage. Flatten them out under some books for a few weeks while you peruse ebay and other websites, see what you can find for prices. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
759 Posts |
Turns out I have a 1919 bond from Berlin for 1000 marks, issued just before hyperinflation took off. It didn't take long for this to become wallpaper.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
527 Posts |
These are fairly common but harder to find with a complete set of coupons.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
624 Posts |
It's weird because they were pretty much valueless by the time you were supposed to cash in the first coupon, so they became worthless. Because of that, most of them were burned for heat, used as wallpaper, or simply discarded. And since so many were destroyed, finding them with consecutive serial numbers go back to be hard to find again.
I gave these back to my wife's grandmother, who owns them, and she recently sent them back to me to sell. So I will keep you posted with how much I get for them as a set.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4563 Posts |
Fantastic piece of history Mayflower.
Edited by scopru
08/15/2018 07:51 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
33743 Posts |
This would be a great wall hanger for an office, especially if your family has German roots.
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Moderator
 United States
157664 Posts |
Indeed, it would.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12308 Posts |
These are really cool. The individual 400 mark...coupons?...remind me of beer tickets at the annual Oktoberfest festival here in central Texas.
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Replies: 12 / Views: 7,829 |
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Posted 12/06/2016 12:02 pm
