2018-04-05 Thu

To pursue the economy during the Weimar Republic of Germany, we must pay attention to the Philately of the time. Dozens of stamps will tell the story of Hyperinflation in Germany.

The German hyperinflation stamps have a fascinating back-story. The 2nd and 3rd decade of the 20th Century was really bad for the world economy. The end of the Great War was followed by even greater Depression which affected the half of the world.

The accused country – Germany was going through a great deal of mess. Between 1921 and 1923, German money, denominated then in marks and pfennigs, deteriorated in value. The German government printed and circulated more currency to make the reparation payments. This devalued the German mark against foreign currencies.

The German Post also affected dramatically by the Devaluation of German Marks. At the beginning of the inflation period (1921), it cost 60 pfennigs to mail a domestic letter which turned 100 billion marks by December 1923.

In order to keep up with the hyperinflation and the ever-changing rates, German post issued a series of high valued stamps. Either the old stamps were overprinted with new inflamed value to make them useful or new stamps were issued.

One of the most expensive stamps was 50,000,000 marks stamp which was, then, bought by Ross Baker. The stamp is very simple with a green vignette and the value written in German. Though the price of this stamp is quite low, this stamp denotes great Historical Value as it is one of the evidence of the bygone Era.

Image Curtsey: https://findyourstampsvalue.com