Emergency Money

by Courtney Coffing

An almost neglected aspect of numismatics in which museums and universities can be involved is the emergency money issued between 1914 and 1947. Notgeld in German-speaking lands, but issued in some form in about 60 nations in that period.

The first notgeld on record was issued even before World War I began on July 31, 1914, when the Buergerliches Brauhaus of Bremen issued hectograph notes in values of 1, 2, and 2.50 Mark. Each note received a rubber stamp and a signature.

Thus was born Notgeld, destined to be issued privately, by cities, by the government, to reach dizzying heights, as much as 80 Billionen Mark for a single note by November 19, 1923, to be replaced by the Rentenmark. To an extent, it appeared in various forms in the World War II period. And the inflation of Germany was exceeded in Hungary in 1946.

It is pointless to tell the Germans about emergency money. The story unfolded in print as the issues were being made, by Dr. Arnold Keller, by collector groups, by dealers. To them we give our thanks for the information available to us.

Perhaps a couple jokes from the inflation period will illustrate the era. A British citizen walks into a bank in Berlin, lays down a gold sovereign and asks, "How many German Mark will this buy?" The teller turns around and says, "Let's go home boys; he just bought the bank."

A traveler walks into the dining car on the train carrying two large suitcases when the maitre'd hurries up to him and says, "sir, you cannot bring your luggage into the diner." The traveler responds, "this is not my luggage; it is my purse."

Let us note some examples of how the German populace was affected by the almost instant change shortage which occurred as the war began.

In the Rhineland city of Strassburg, buffeted by Germany and France over the centuries, at the earliest hint of any conflict, small change disappeared. Gold and silver coins were squirreled away by banks, merchants, and householders.

How does a merchant give change for a 27-pfennig purchase when 30 pfennig in coins is offered to him? He can offer candy or gum valued at 3 pfennig, which many did. If the customer did not accept that, all he could do would be to scribble on a piece of paper his name and the amount of credit due. Give more time, he might include on his chit a date and the name of the town. In a few days, he would be able to run to a local printing shop and have credit chits printed for his customers.

Let me cite some outstanding examples of museum work with Notgeld, and some authors and cities who have given us notable works detailing Notgeld history.

In 1964 Albert Pick, a private collector of paper money of the world, was named by the Bayerische Hypotheken-und Wechsel-Bank in Munich to be the curator of a money museum, a post he held until 1985 and which is now in the capable hands of Frau Dr. Franzisca Jungmann. Drawing on his experience and knowledge, plus a reasonable budget and encouragement of the bank, he brought the numismatic story to all of Bavaria. There are some 35 branches of the bank in the land; on a regular basis a team from the museum brought display material to the branch banks, leaving it for a period, with suitable publicity material. Local notgeld was always a part of the display, and Pick told me once that often, a local resident would say, "Oh, I have something that is not on display," and would provide it to the collection.

It has been estimated that some 3600 places in Germany issued a form of Notgeld, from private and city issues, prisoner of war and civilian camps, to canteen issues, beer and telephone tokens, streetcar tokens, gas, water and electricity tokens (some of which showed up in circulation as coins), encased postage stamps, ship money; made of paper, metal, plastic, wood, leather, silk, linen, porcelain, aluminum, and other materials.

With some 80 years behind us, these emergency notes have been used was wallpaper, started fires, redeemed by the issuing agencies, and destroyed, lost in fire, flood, and bombings. It is only through the good offices of numismatic dealers, collectors, and museunis that there are survivors today.

There are other manners in which to show the extent of Notgeld issues. Using Dr. Keller as a source, he said there were 5500 notes from 452 localities dates 1914; small denomination note issues for circulation from 1916 to 1922 were from 3658 places, totaling 36000 notes.

Grossgeld, notes of one Mark or more, issued from 1918 to 1921, came from 579 places, a total of about 5000 notes. Some 800 places issued 4000 notes in denominations from 100 to 1000 Mark in 1922; and for the 1923 inflation, 5849 places issued at least 70000 notes.

There were 600 locations which issued prisoner of war notes totaling 3000 items and 20 concentration camps with 90 notes in the 1935-1945 period. So difficult it was to print just Reichsbank notes (central bank) with constantly rising values in the 1923 period that some 30 paper mills and in addition to the Reichsdruckerei, there were 84 printing plants that had to work around the clock just to produce money, a costly effort that was son recognized as costing more to produce than was the buying power of the money printed.

A total of 400,000 printage plates were used. In that period, 10 Milliarden individual notes were printed, with a face value of 3877 Trillion Mark (3877 followed by 15 zeros!!) Every one of these 3600 place which issued Notgeld have a story to tell. What an opportunity or a graduate student seeking a useflil thesis that involves economics, politics, and marketing. The research might even be awaiting the students in the home towns. What an opportunity for museums to become other hens to loan coin exhibits to banks, smaller museums or in other public places in the area they serve!

Towns which have had their Notgeld described in separate volumes include Apolda, Berlin, Bielefeld, Celle, Bad Dueben, Duisurg, Flensburg, Franzburg, Hameln, Jena, Kaiserslautern, Kassel, Kontanz, and Trier, to name a few in my library.

Many cities would welcome that opportunity for a local city council, coin clubs, coin dealers, bank or merchant group to back publication of such a book. And not just universities can make use of Notgeld as teaching aids. Museums, perhaps too often bogged down in the ancient treasures of other cultures, might find many opportunities awaiting them in their own backyards, so to speak.

Few persons remain who can be considered primary sources of information. The Buergeriches Brauhaus employees paid on July 31, 1914, are not likely to be with us today to recall the event. But there are contemporary newspapers and city council proceedings in archives. There are numismatic sources, the publications of dealers and societies; and collectors of today and a multitude of bibliographical sources.

This year we are observing the 83rd year since World War I began. It is not too late to retrieve this fascinating tale of emergency money, and to learn lessons from it.

Courtney Coffing is a long time collector of notgeld who issues a monthly newsletter devoted to notgeld. These remarks were presented to the XII International Numismatic Congress held in Berlin, Germany, September 8-12, 1997. The event was sponsored by the International Numismatic Commission, whose first Congress was held in Brussels, Belgium, in 1891. Raleigh Coin Club sincerely thanks Courtney for giving permission to reprint his remarks. If interested in his newsletter, please contact Courtney at: The Fraktur, P0 Box 334, Iola, WI 54945, subscriptions are $10 per year.