Old German banknotes have frequently been printed using the Fraktur font, which
is hard to read and decipher nowadays.
Writing Rules
While flourish capitals make it difficult to identify the right letter (especially in a foreign language, ie. German words),
some letters are particularly hard to identify, because they are written completely different in the Fraktur font than
in todays font types. This mainly affects the letters "s" and "k".
The letter "s" has two different expressions in Fraktur font. It is written like "s", if it is used at the end of the word/main word,
like in Reichs, as in Reichsbank, which is a German word composed of the two nouns "Reich" and "bank". Therefore the
the "s" of "Reichs" is at the end of the word and written accordingly.
If the letter "s" is used inside a word or as its first letter, it is written like "f" using the Fraktur font.
The word "Kasse" (English: Cashier) is written like "Kaffe" in Fraktur.
The letter "k" in Fraktur font is always printed like a "t", trankforming "Mark" into "Mart" in Fraktur type.
The following words can frequently be found (and its spelling mistaken) on German banknotes:
Reichsbantnote
Means "Reichsbanknote" and is the official name of the German Mark bill of the
Imperial era, the Inflation years and during the
Weimar Republik and WW2.
You can browse our list of
Reichsbanknotes, here.
Darlehnstaffenfchein, Darlehnstassenschein or Darlehnskaffenfchein
Means "Darlehnskassenschein" and is the name of a banknote from the German Imperial period.
Please read more about the background on Darlehnskassenschein
or view our list of Darlehnskassenscheins.
Reichsbantdirektorium or Reichsbantdirettorium
Means "Reichsbankdirektorium", which was the name of the Central bank that
issued the banknote.
Please check our list of Banknotes issued by the Reichsbankdirektorium.
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