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wow nice note and nice info!!

I love German currency, and the first issued large sized version was the first non-US note I ever owned as a child. Oddly enough I didn't even know about the vampire until just a few years ago, very neat. Nice write-up and pics!

Thank you for interesting information

Dave,

Interesting info and vampire notes...

The original Albrecht Durer "Portrait of a Young Man" has the vampire image in it also, but it was touched up a bit for the note, the message being that France was sucking Germany of her lifeblood. Durer's works have appeared on numerous other German banknotes, mostly from the 1920's of course, but also "Venetian Woman" on the 5DM note that was issued as late as 1990.

The 5 DM note featuring Dürer's portrait of the Venetian woman was first issued in 1963. The young man on the 10 DM note, also from 1963, may be Dürer (self portrait?), and the Elsbeth Tucher portrait depicted on the 20 DM note (1961) is one of Dürer's works too.

That series of notes was replaced by a new one in the early 90s, with the new 5 DM note (Oct-1992) showing Bettina von Arnim. But the 5 DM note was always the least popular note - people preferred the 5 DM coin.

Christian

Very interesting story and nice notes.