How many German notgeld were issued?
5,500 varieties of 1914, issued by 452 places.
36,000 varieties of 1915-1922, small value notes (kleingeld), issued by 3,658 places.
5,000 varieties of 1918-1919, larger denominations (grossgeld), issued by 579 places.
4,000 varieties of 1922, between 100 & 1000Mk, issued by 800 places.
70,000 varieties of 1923, inflationary notes, issued by 5,849 places.
3,660 varieties of 1923/4 notes of constant value (wertbestandiges), issued by 562 places.
3,000 varieties of P.O.W.notes, issued by 600 issuing locations.
These figures are based on the findings of Dr. Arnold Keller, a collector, then dealer, then author of notgeld related books, who died in Berlin in December 1972. Any true collector of notgeld will have undoubtedly, come across his name. If you take all types of minor varieties into account, then the number, I have heard, is more like 163,000 different types in total.
Serienscheine basic issues, listed by K.Lindman in his 'Band 1: Grundausgaben' catalogue.................8810 notes.
All types of serienscheine...........my findings......1440 issuing authorities with about 2000 different series, some with many variants.
With the onset of these collector issues of 1921-1922, which the central government in Berlin had been monitoring with increased displeasure, came a decree dated 17th July 1922, which banned all further notgeld issues. However, collectors will come across notgeld dated anywhere in 1922 up to 1924. After this, the whole money system crashed.
2 pieces of German notgeld from Strelno & Nakel
The Strelno piece (Polish = Strzelno) was issued in 1917 & the Nakel piece (Polish = Naklo) in 1919 and are both 'verkehrsausgaben' types. They were issued for general circulation to alleviate the problem of there being no small change available for day-to-day living. Both notes have a town stamp-mark and their basic designs can be seen as fairly plain with no colouring. There is no printing on the reverse of the notes.
As notgeld became more collectable, the designs became more intricate and issuers/printers tried to include many colours, excellent graphics and a wide subject matter on their notgeld issues that the collectors would like. Literally hundreds of different sets are available to the notgeld collector of today, well catalogued and very reasonably priced at around 1 euro a piece for the more 'common' types. The 4 notes below form a complete set and were issued in Rinteln. These colourful sets, generally issued from 1920-21 are known as 'serienscheine'. Fantastically designed and colourful and highly collectable!
|
