Got a GREAT new notgeld coin...



1910 Stadt Coblenz 10 Pfennig

Looks like an early version of Gene Simmons.

Sorry but that was funny, I do like it though, reminds ne of some of the medevil gargoyls you see in old churches or a imp

Well, you know what that is. But thanks for the closeup picture ...



Christian

Neat coin! What's the story behind the guy on the reverse?

That is the Augenroller, a sculpture or relief in the old town of Koblenz (back then spelled with a C). His eyes constantly roll to the left and the right - hence the name - and every hour or so he sticks his tongue out. This refers to an old legend about a man who was beheaded in the 16th century. Even when facing death, he made those gestures ...

There are other "Augenrollers" in Koblenz, see below. But only the one depicted above moves his eyes and his tongue.



Christian

Yeah, thanks again for the info on what it is, saves me some digging for the info, I couldnt just let it pass without knowing what the heck caused them to depict such a strange thing on a coin.

That's a great one. Another to add to my want list.

Thanks, Tabbs!

And I have one, but mine seems to be made from iron. Yours is Cu-Ni?

Its iron...photo color is off...had a bit of difficulty getting the detail I wanted so I brightened it a bit. I need to reshoot it befor eI post it on my site...the color look more like this:

okay, I corrected the color...its closer to how it looks in hand now sorry, just got a new camera and I am still diddling with it...

2-3 years ago I've discovered the beauty of German notmunzen, all of them are from a bitter period of a great people, and in despite of the low value most of them have great designs!

I agree...many are, in my humble opinion, true works of art...to me its one of the most interesting areas of numismatic history...right behind Roman

I just got one of those off of Ebay, not in as good condition as yours but it'll be interesting to compare different grades

It my favorite notgeld coin I have ever seen...the protrait is simply outstanding.

what does notgeld mean? It wasn't minted and circulated? And are these all German?

Notgeld means 'emergency money' and there are many countries that had notgeld, by far the most are from Germany and Austria because of WWI an II.

Is the idea that they used other metals to produce them?

France and Romania are other countries with thousands tokens issued to compensate the lack of change.

usualy...that or paper and sometimes other materials other than paper like cloth...

In 20c Germany, notgeld was used between WW1 and 1923, first because of the lack of change, then because of the hyperinflation. The situation at the end of WW2 was quite different, and notgeld was not really used then. (Unless you count cigarettes and agricultural produce as not"geld".) Italy also used tokens that can be considered notgeld, even in the 1970s ...

Christian

These are very interesting. Is there a Notgeld catalog, something similar with the Krause coin catalog?

Recieved these 2 in the mail this morning rather happy with them

1917 Hagan 50pf
1919 Manmheim 10pf



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There are several different catalogs but the cheapest would be World Notgeld 1914-1947 (and other local issue emergency money) by Courtney L. Coffing. Though it doesnt have a lot of info...it is more like a checklist of notgeld from each country city, town, etc...it has a 13,000 entries.

few others would be:

EMERGENCY COINS OF GERMANY by R. Upton - catalog of German Notgeld coins (1915-1923)

CATALOG OF GERMAN WAR TOKENS. by Robert Lamb

DEUTSCHES NOTGELD - SERIENSCHEINE BAND 1 & 2 - 2nd Edition. - - Hans Grabowski, Manfred Mehl - (in German) 896 pages, 1479 catalog numbers with subnumbers and/or letters - more than 4400 color illustration, pricing.

HAMBURGER PAPIERGELD 1800 - 1950 - Lindman-Stolzenberg-Kirstein- Hardcover-216 Pages, Color Illustrations of Rare Seldom Seen Notes - Coverage from the French Revolution to 1950.


There are quite a few but many are in german

Christian, I figured since they have listings of notgeld up to at least 1947, that would include WWII.

Well, 1947 sure sounds like post-WW2, yes. I just did not know about any German notgeld from those years. Where was that issued or used?

Christian

I use the catalog Walter Funck "Die Notmunzen der deutschen Stadte, Gemeinden, Kreise, Lander etc." , H. Gietl Verlag & Publikationsservice GmBH, Regenstauf, 2000

I dont have any from later dates but just as one example Scheinfeld / Bayern and Altusried / Bayern has some list for 1946 / 47


Gera / Thuringen has some listed for 1947 (25 pfennig)

there seems to be a lot of later dates for Bayern

Kiel / Schleswig-Holstein seems to have 5-30 pf for 1947

I dont have any past mid 30's though.

Here we go here's my rusty version

Mine is the version without SD under the chin...

Interesting there's a variant, wonder what SD stands for?

Interesting, did not know that. What we learned at school was that the economic situations in/after WW 1 and 2 were pretty different: There was no cash shortage in 1945 and shortly afterwards, and no hyperinflation either, but of course the money that people had would not really buy much. And yet it seems that some places had notgeld even then ...

Christian

Could be the initials of the designer. But I think it actually says STD which may simply mean "Stadt Düren".

Christian (just guessing )

it stands for Stadt Duren I asked the same question when I found out there were 2 types...the one with SD had a smaller mintage I was told.

Christian, from what I have read there was serious hyperinflation in places like Hungary and greece after WWII. In germany there was rampant inflation up until 1947 when it was concluded that there must be economic and monetary reform. Until 1947 germans were using occupation currency and, it seems, local emergency currency. Below is a blurb about post WWII Germany regarding its economy:

As agreed at Potsdam, an attempt was made to convert Germany into a pastoral and agricultural nation, which would only be allowed light industry. Huge amounts of factories were dismantled as reparations or simply destroyed.

Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years the U.S. pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion, in his book Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany, that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $10 billion dollars--equivalent to around $100 billion dollars in 2006

With the repudiation of the U.S. occupation directive JCS 1067 in July 1947 the Western Allies were able to start planning for the introduction of a currency reform to halt the rampant inflation. This type of act to help the German economy had been prohibited by the directive and its execution also lead to the eventual division of Germany.

In 1948, the Deutsche Mark replaced the occupation currency as the currency of the Western occupation zones, leading to their eventual economic recovery.

In 1947 the Marshall plan, initially known as the "European Recovery Program" was initiated. In the year 1947-1952 some $13 billion of economic and technical assistance were allocated to Western Europe. Despite protests from many beneficiaries the Marshall plan, although in the less generous form of loans, was in 1949 extended to also include the newly formed West Germany. In the years 1949-1952 West Germany received loans which totaled $1.45 billion dollars.

The country subsequently began exporting local products, reduced unemployment, increased food production, reduced the black market, and slowly, but continuously, improved the country's standard of living.

By 1950 the UK and France were finally forced to stop the dismantling of German heavy industry.

So it might make sense that along with occupational money, local emergency money would have still been needed to fill gaps. Hyperinflation hit a lot of countries in Europe post WWII. Hungary is a notable extreme example.

BTW...here are some cool pics of German hyperinflation


woman using german currency to fuel a fire


Selling money by weight at the height of hyper-inflation. Paper money is worth more by weight than old bones... but less than rags.





lighting the stove with worthless money...that money would have worth today but I guess at the time, it was worth more as fuel.



1 trillion marks to the dollar

Did not know that. When you hear or read about Notgeld here (in the narrower sense, referring to Germany in the previous century), it is always about the late WW1 and post-WW1 period. Maybe it is a matter of sheer quantities, I don't know.

As for the post-WW2 inflation, what we had in the early 1920s was an "open" hyperinflation, whereas the situation after 1945 was what we call "gestaute Inflation". Not sure what the best translation would be; it means that the prices had been controlled by the nazi government, and the post-war occupational administration did the same thing first. Also, for several years before and after '45 many goods were rationed. So the "official" prices were kind of low, except that the Geldmenge (money supply?) had increased, and many who had anything to sell would not give it away for RM cash but on an exchange basis - almost like before the invention of money. That changed with or shortly after the currency reform in the Western occupation zones ...

Christian

Wish I could get my hands on all that currency for that price nowadays! Some great pics Drusus, I have been trying to hoard german currency and haven't been able to aquire nearly the amount I am looking for. At least at the prices I can pay. I think the best I got was a stack of 20,000 marks at $0.25 each, which I was more than happy to pay, the most was 9 UNC 1910 100 marks with an envelope and letter they came with in 1922, I think it was something like $7-9 each, I don't remember exactly. I love that stuff though, I think I have somewhere in the range of 400 notes, with about 50 different denominations and styles. Including about 10 Notgeld.

Very cool pictures and information, Drusus!