Weimar Republic Hyperinflation Issues 1919-1923

1. Weimar RepublicHyperinflation Issues 1919-1923 Postage stamps and bills Clarita-Efraim PPS

2. Post War issues The victor nations in World War I decided to assess Germany for their costs of conducting the war against Germany. With no means of paying in gold or currency backed by reserves, Germany ran the presses, causing the value of the Mark to collapse.Between 1914 and the end of 1923 the German papiermark’s rate of exchange against the U.S. dollar plummeted from 4.2 mark/dollar to 4.2 trillion mark/dollar. The price of one gold mark (0.35842g gold weight) in German paper currency at the end of 1918 was two paper mark, but by the end of 1919 a gold mark cost 10 paper mark. This inflation worsened between 1920 and 1922, and the cost of a gold mark (or conversely the devaluation of the paper mark) rose from 15 to 1,282 paper mark.[3] In 1923 the value of the paper mark had its worst decline. By July, the cost of a gold mark had risen to 101,112 paper mark, and in September was already at 13 million. On 30 Nov 1923 it cost 1 trillion paper mark to buy a single gold mark. In October 1923, Germany experienced a 29,500% hyperinflation (roughly 21% interest per day). On 15 November 1923 the papiermark was replaced by the rentenmark at 4.2 rentenmark/dollar, or 1 trillion papiermark/rentenmark (exchangeable through July 1925). During the hyperinflation, ever higher denominations of banknotes were issued by the Reichsbank and other institutions (notably the Reichsbahn railway company). The Papiermark was produced and circulated in enormously large quantities. Before the war, the highest denomination was 1000-Mark, equivalent to approximately 50 British pounds or 238 US dollars. In early 1922, 10,000-Mark notes were introduced, followed by 100,000- and 1 million-Mark notes in February 1923. July 1923 saw notes up to 50 million-Mark, with 10 milliard (1010)-Mark notes introduced in September. The hyperinflation peaked in October 1923 and banknote denominations rose to 100 trillion (1014)-Mark. At the end of the hyperinflation, these notes were worth approximately £5 sterling or US$24. 5 Million Mark coin would have been worth $714.29 in January 1923, about 1 thousandth of one cent by October 1923.

3. Letter Postage Rates for 1922For Domestic / Foreign Letters, Less than 20 Grams1922-JAN-01 -- 1.25 Marks / 4.00 Marks1922-JUL-01 -- 1.00 Marks / 6.00 Marks1922-OCT-01 -- 2.00 Marks / 20.00 Marks1922-NOV-15 -- 4.00 Marks / 40.00 Marks1922-DEC-15 -- 10.00 Marks / 80.00 Marks

4. Hyperinflation Issues - 1923 By the Summer of 1923, Weimar Republic hyperinflation was REALLY getting bad. On one hand, the value of the German Mark was decreasing almost every day, and on the other hand, consumer prices were sky-rocketing on a daily basis. The effects on the economy and on the German people were devastating. At the end of the hyperinflation period, in the fall of 1923, a loaf of bread cost many billions, and a postcard from Munich to Prague demanded stamps worth 36 billion marks (see above). In this situation, the central bank stopped investing in the design and printing of the notes.

5. By August 1923, with the value of the German Mark fluctuating from day to day, designing and printing new postage stamps was out of the question. For the postal service of the Weimar Republic, there existed a state-of-emergency. Beginning in August and proceeding through October of 1923, the postal service began applying re-valuation overprints to existing stocks of lower denomination stamps. The re-valuations ranged from 5,000 Marks to 2,000,000 Marks.

6. There are a multitude of varieties on the stamps and their surcharges shown above. These include plate varieties, shade varieties, surcharge varieties, imperforates, missing surcharges, double surcharges, inverted surcharges, postal usages, etc. This could become an extensive philatelic study, for the collector that may be interested in specializing in these issues. For anyone interested in ALL the DETAILS on these issues, please consult the Michel Deutschland Spezialkatalog Volume I. The 1923 postal rate table, for domestic / foreign letters under 20 grams, is shown below. By October of 1923, 2,000,000 Marks wasn't even enough to mail a single domestic letter, thus by that time, most of the re-valued stamps, shown in the images above, were all useless. Letter Postage Rates for 1923 For Domestic / ForeignLetters, Less than 20 Grams 1923-JAN-15 -- 20 Marks / 150 Marks1923-MAR-01 -- 40 Marks / 300 Marks1923-JUL-01 -- 120 Marks / 800 Marks1923-AUG-01 -- 400 Marks / 3,000 Marks1923-AUG-24 -- 8,000 Marks / 60,000 Marks1923-SEP-01 -- 30,000 Marks / 200,000 Marks1923-SEP-20 -- 100,000 Marks / 750,000 Marks1923-OCT-01 -- 800,000 Marks / 6,000,000 Marks1923-OCT-10 -- 2,000,000 Marks / 15,000,000 Marks1923-OCT-20 -- 4,000,000 Marks / 30,000,000 Marks1923-NOV-01 -- 40,000,000 Marks / 200,000,000 Marks1923-NOV-05 -- 500,000,000 Marks / 4,000,000,000 Marks1923-NOV-12 -- 5,000,000,000 Marks / 40,000,000,000 Marks1923-NOV-20 -- 10,000,000,000 Marks / 80,000,000,000 Marks1923-NOV-26 -- 40,000,000,000 Marks / 320,000,000,000 Marks1923-DEC-12 -- 50,000,000,000 Marks / 300,000,000,000 Marks

8. German Papiermark of the Weimar Republic, post World War I hyperinflation era

9. A 50 million mark banknote issued in 1923, worth approximately one U.S. dollar when issued, would have been worth approximately 12 million U.S. dollars nine years earlier, but within a few weeks inflation made the banknote practically worthless

10. German Papiermark of the Weimar Republic, post World War I  hyperinflation era (1921–24).

11. 23 Due to the rate of hyperinflation, the previously surcharged issues had become obsolete. This required the creation of a new series of postage stamps, suited to keeping up with the rising postal rates. The stamps shown above, in denominations from 500,000 Marks through 50,000,000,000 Marks, were issued in October 1923. Actually, after about two months, these new stamps were also on the verge of being obsolete. By the beginning of December 1923, a domestic letter cost 50,000,000,000 Marks to mail, and a letter being mailed outside Germany cost 300,000,000,000 Marks. There are many plate varieties on this set, and, due to the fact that the frame / background of the stamp was printed in a separate process from the denomination, there are also many value shifts on just about all the denominations.

12. In November 1923, re-valued stamps of the new October issue were released. Some of them are shown in the image on the left German Papiermark of the Weimar Republic, post World War I hyperinflation era (1921–24).

13. In December 1923, hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic ended! A new currency, the Rentenmark, was instituted, and the German economy began to recover. In 1924, one Rentenmark (or Reichsmark) was equivalent to ONE BILLION Papermarks of the Weimar Republic hyperinflation period. Exchanging the old paper currency was futile, and many people, businesses, and banks, either re-cycled the old paper Marks or threw them in the trash. The new series of stamps, again denominated in Pfennig, shown above ,was issued December 1, 1923. They all feature a circular central design, with the numeral of value printed over it. The numerals were printed separately from the stamps, so there are also many shifts on this series. This whole series also exists imperforate and with missing value numerals. Most of them are scarce and expensive. It would be unfathomable to even imagine the effect the hyperinflation had on businesses that relied on mail advertising, mail billing, mail order sales, etc., and on people, who may have lost their homes, possessions, or that may have even starved to death, because they didn't have the means of paying for food or necessities. History would soon forget the hyperinflation of 1921-1923, and Germany would once again become a thriving nation, but the German people would NEVER FORGET the pain and suffering they endured through this period in history. Combined with the Great Depression at the end of the decade, these events would lead to the eventual downfall of the Weimar Republic. 

14. The Rentenmark (RM) was a currency issued on 15 November 1923 to stop the hyperinflation of 1922 and 1923 in Weimar Germany, after the previously used "paper" Mark had become almost worthless. The name literally meant "pension mark", in order to signal that pensions were secure. It was subdivided into 100 Rentenpfennig and was expanded in 1924 by the Reichsmark.

15. The Reichsmark was the currency in Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the Deutsche Mark, and until 23 June in East Germany when it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reichsmark was subdivided into 100 Reichspfennig. The Mark is an ancient Germanic weight measure, traditionally a half pound, later used for several coins; whereas Reich, that is realm in English, comes from the official name for the German nation state from 1871 to 1945, Deutsches Reich. Reichsmark

16. Sources: http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/Hebrew/collections https://lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/item.asp?item=21212 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stamps https://www.stamp-collecting-world.com/weimar https://www.stamp-collecting-world.com/weimar http://www.filaposta.com/foro/viewtopic קלריטה ואפרים הנכם מוזמנים להיכנס לאתר שלנו: www.clarita-efraim.com נשמח לתגובות.