Germany (Westfalia) Notgeld 1 to 50000000 Mark 1921 to 1923

One of the biggest factors in the rise to power of brutal dictator Adolph Hitler was the horrendous economic conditions in Germany after World War I. The marks and pfennings (like dollars and cents in America) of the old German Empire became essentially valueless. It took a wheel barrow to carry enough of them to the store, so it is said.

With little or no choice, individuals an local governments started to mint their own coins. The results are called notgeld. 'Not' is German for 'emergency' and 'geld' is German for 'money', applying to both coins and currency. Hence, notgeld means emergency money. You can see an interesting page on notgelds at this CoinQuest link:

Read about notgelds

As far as this piece goes, it is one of the more famous notgelds of the state of Westfalen, Germany. Catalog value depends on the condition of the coin:

worn: $5 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $20
well preserved: $45
fully uncirculated: $100

These values roughly apply to all dates and all different denominations, which range as low as 1 mark and as high as 1 billion marks. (Whew!)

These are catalog prices. If you were to sell your notgeld to a coin dealer, he or she would likely pay about one-half of these values. See our Impornant Terminology page for information about catalog values.
cqLastNotify