In the early 20th century the yearly average earning of a worker was about 1,100 Reichsmark.
With this in mind a 1 Reichsmark coin was already fairly valuable. Coins played a very important
role in the money circulation of those days.
From economic neccesity...
With the start of World War 1 a shortage of metal evolved from
the production of war supplies. Coins were minted in metals that were essential for war production.
Therefore the coins were soon used as a source for these metals and taken out of circulation. This
caused a shortage of money.
Frequently coins were also hoarded by people and institutions out of fear to loose out in the war.
The intrinsic value of gold and silver coins for instance was a guarantee against their devaluation.
As a response many local municipalities started to issue paper money to provide the necessary
liquidity. Later firms and other entities started to issue
Notgeld, as well. In some cases the
issuers of the paper Notgeld hoarded the equivalent coins to cover the value of the issued banknotes
or kept paper bills of an equivalent value. If this was not the case the issue of Notgeld added to
the inflationary tendency.
...to an early form of merchandising
Initially being just an emergency measure to keep the money circulation going, the new banknotes
were soon very popular with collectors. During and after WW1 many towns, clubs and firms continued
to issue these notes for collecting purpose, rather than economic necessity. These issues of Notgeld
are also called "Serienscheine" (English: Bills in Series).
One of the best example of Serienscheine are the 70 series of Reutergeld.
Most of the later Notgeld issues are very colourful and artistic. These banknotes are very collectable
and a great eye-catcher. The notes from the early WW1 period are more interesting from an historic
and economic point of view. Many of these early notes have been produced in an improvised way, e.g.
reused playing cards or as hand written and stamped piece of paper. Others were made from
different materials as wood, leather or textile.
It is estimated that during WW1 and its aftermath about 40,000 - 45,000 different Notgeld notes
had been issued.
A law enacted on 17. July 1922 prohibited the production of Notgeld. No further series of Notgeld
were issued thereafter. The story of the Notgeld, however, was not finished yet.
The next article is concerned with Notgeld from the Inflation
period.
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