Old German Currency

A native-French-speaking Swiss friend of mine, who has been living and working in England for the past few years, has landed a job in Munich, Germany.  We were chatting on WhatsApp today, and the subject of pre-euro money came up.

I visited continental Europe three times as a child, in the summers of 1974-76, and later as an adult.  On those early trips I crossed many borders and exchanged dollars into plenty of different currencies--French and Swiss francs, Dutch guilders, Austrian schillings, Italian lire, British pounds, German marks.  I completely understand the advantages of the euro; what too many people don't consider is what was lost when those independent countries adopted the euro.

This, however, isn't a post about economics or nostalgia, it's a post about currency itself.  While I don't have any of the paper Marks, shillings, etc., that I used as a child, I do have several examples of older German currency.  In other posts I've shown some of the German inflationary currency of 1922-23 that I have, in this one I thought I'd just share some of the other German notes I have.  I took these pictures of the notes next to an American $2 bill for size comparisons, and sent them to my friend just so he can get a flavor of German culture in the past:

click to enlarge

Don't you love the battleships on the reverse of the 100 Mark note?  And how about the size of those notes?

I have other inflationary notes, but these show the start.

This 1,000 Mark note was counter-stamped one billion Marks.

Note the different eagle-with-swastika logos on these two Nazi-era notes.  And how about that blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan boy on the 5 Reichsmark note?  Contrast that with Albrecht Dürer on the 20 Reichsmark note.

This 5 Mark note is from East Germany.