Below is an assortment of inflation notes and envelopes from the period discussed. Remember the stories about how in Germany during the Depression that it would take a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread? Incredible!


  • 'Notgeld' means 'emergency note.' They were issued locally in both Germany and Austria when national money became virtually worthless from inflation. Local municipalities attempted, mostly in vain, to stabilize their local economies.

    -Here is a ten pfennig notgeld (ten cents)


    -Here is a fifty pfennig notgeld (fifty cents)


    -Here is a one mark notgeld (one dollar)


    -Here is another one mark notgeld one dollar)


    -Here is a one thousand mark note that has been overprinted to one billion! Often, by the time a note had been printed, it had been rendered useless by inflation and had to be overprinted! (one billion dollars)


    -Here is a five million mark notgeld (five million dollars)


    -Here is a twenty million mark notgeld (twenty million dollars)


    -Here is a one hundred million mark note (one hundred million dollars)


    -Here is a five hundred million mark note (five hundred million dollars)


    -Here is the back of an inflation envelope. Often times so many values of stamps were needed that the sender had to use the front and back of the envelope for postage!


    -Here is the front of the envelope of another example.

    -Here is the back. Click on both for a larger view. Note the pen notation of '1,384,000,000' marks! Almost a billion four hundred million to send this envelope!


    -Here is an envelope for 8 billion marks!


    -Here is a pre-paid envelope for an astounding one hundred billion marks worth of postage! (equivalent to one hundred billion dollars)


    -Here is a sheet of one hundred stamps for fifty million marks a piece. A total of five billion marks!


    -Lastly, here is a single postage stamp for five hundred million marks!


    -Children playing with bundles of worthless money during the hyperinflation in Germany, 1923!


    -Children fly kites worth millions of dollars! Too bad they are made of worthless German inflation money...


    -Children cutting money with scissors for projects...


    -Inflation money used as wallpaper!


    -Inflation money used as wallpaper!


    -Mountains of worthless inflation money!


    -A woman uses worthless inflation money to heat her house! She's shown here stuffing it into her furnace.


    -On the way to the store to buy a slice of bread?


    -The Tower of Babel?


    -Sweeping up worthless money.