Page 5 - GC-Sept-Oct-23

This new currency system was financial work required that was be- point, businesses were even weigh- paints a picture of the times and time stable 10 pfennig postage rate
bonded by a mortgage on the entire ing addressed. ing paper currencies on a scale rath- tribulations of this inflation period is prior to 1914 for a domestic letter
industrial and agricultural resources To illustrate survival during this er than counting the face value for “The Black Oblisk,” by renowned (Fernverkehr), where 1 Reichmark
of the country – theatrically. This hardship inflation period, especially purchases! author Erich Maria Remarque, pub- equaled 100 pfennige, to the explo-
Rentenmark converted all Papier- from 1921 through 1923, the fol- These stories, and others such as lished in 1956. sive inflated rate for the same letter
marken at a rate of 1-trilllion Pa- lowing story has been reported in people going shopping with suitcas- Postal historians and philatelists at 100 billion Papiermarks by Dec.
piermarken to one of the new different versions. One version of es full of this inflation currency, have had a field day with the Ger- 1, 1923! Postal rates can be a good
Rentenmarken. Twelve zeros were this story is about a robber running and workers getting paid twice a man inflation period. This is where way to document the dramatic rises
then cut from prices, and a stable up to someone who was hurrying on day to help during this financial postal rates increased from the long-
reasonable price structure was again their way shopping carrying a bas- crisis, so they could run out and Continued on page 6
established. ket full of cash. Then grabbing the shop before prices would possibly
Now the German currency was basket, dumping the cash, and run- increase again were reality. Cash
again converted back to the original ning off with the empty basket, to was no longer saved but spent as
4.2 Marks to the U.S. dollar of 1914. get away faster? Yes, this sounds quickly as earned.
General confidence in the economy crazy, but in 1923 Germany, the This, and more is what took
was restored in Germany, at least in basket was worth more money than place in these turbulent days in Ger-
the business sectors. Yay! It worked the bundles of inflation currency many, especially during the second
on the surface, but there was more that was in the basket! At some half of 1923. A great novel that

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