A short history of Notgeld, excerpted from German Series Notes from 1918-1922 by Manfred Mehl:

"Notgeld is the term for the bills printed at the beginning of W.W. I. People were hoarding silver and gold coins, so the central government printed paper equivalents. Then the far eastern parts of Germany were occupied by Russia and cut off from money circulation, so they printed their own Notgeld in small denominations so people could continue with normal daily transactions. They didn't have permission, but the local authorities quietly allowed the homemade bills to be used. The bills were very simple, often stamped and signed by hand. They had a limited term of value and were to be exchanged at banks after a year or so. Most were, and that's when collectors stepped in. When no more bills were to be found in the hands of the local population, the collectors turned to the collection points. At first, local mayors simply gave the expired bills away. But soon the demand was so high that they started charging half or even all of the face value. The money was then given to charities like the Red Cross. New supplies were sometimes printed so there would be more to sell to collectors.

"When in 1916 there was again a need for emergency supplies of paper money, small towns and even businesses printed more elaborately decorated bills. They had the value to collectors in mind, but the bills were still designed to be used as currency to ease a temporary shortage of coins in local districts. Meanwhile, the number of collectors continued to grow. Each town competed to produce the most beautiful and original notes because selling them successfully to collectors was a sure source of income for the community coffers.

"In 1918 a new type of Notgeld appeared, a series of notes, each with the same value but with different pictures. Now they were no longer meant to be used but were sold directly to the collectors. On the front side, the notes still had the characteristics of money even though they were never in circulation. On the backs however they had themes from literature, historical events, myths, anything that occurred to the artists hired by the communities to design them.

"Now a fever of collecting broke out across the entire German Empire, and clubs were founded everywhere. In the '20s, there were around 20 magazines for collectors and their clubs and associations. The local communities were thrilled by the demand and printed more Notgeld, selling it with additional administrative costs added. With so much money involved, speculators and con-men came on the scene. Some communities falsified the issue dates, printing in 1921 the more sought after WWI notes of 1916. Speculators bought up the rights from small communities to print Notgeld and printed the notes in their name, keeping the profits. A certain Heinrich Appel who owned a small print shop created 65 different notes from a tiny rural area.

"Because the bills were originally meant to be currency, permission to circulate them needed to be requested from the central bank. No one ever made such a request, so the printers of Notgeld were only rarely prosecuted. Nevertheless, the speculation with Notgeld didn't last very long. The population began to protest, especially serious collectors who felt betrayed in their efforts to collect real bills. On July 17, 1922, the government threatened any further production of Notgeld with punishment. Thus was the collection of Notgeld saved in the last moment."

Manfred Mehl, Deutsche Serienscheine von 1918-1922, H. Geitl Verlag & Publikationsservice GMBH, 1998 (German Series Notes from 1918-1922, H. Geitl Publishers and Publications Service, Inc.)

Back to German Scrip Page