Odd Item Of Philatelic History

I found this interesting item at auction and had to get it.

In 1923, the German Postal Ministry conducted a sale of old German postage to help fund its reparations payments to the Allies. This envelope is from that sale.

The envelope originally contained stamps of the 1900 and 1905/15 Kaiser's Yacht series from the German colony in Kamerun.

Sale price was 19,000 Mark. With the hyperinflation of the period, that was around US$1. At the lower right of the envelope is a pencil notation of the date (10 March 1923) and price paid.



The back has the seal of the Reichspostministerium Markenverwertungsstelle, the office of the German Postal Ministry responsible for old stamp sales.

Very interesting item. Germany was trying whatever they could to raise money. Thanks for sharing.

A beautiful and rather historic item. Thanks for sharing it, and thanks for the history of it too.

Very interesting! I'd bet this envelope is now worth a bit too. Great item for an exhibit!

Very nice PostMaster - Its amazing what crops up on SCF

Found a couple more of these.

This one contained 4 sets of Samoa 1900 Yacht Issues without watermark for 8,200 Marks.



And this one contained 1 set of Yacht Issues -- the 2, 3, and 10 Pfennig and the 5 Mark with watermark and the remainder without -- for a purchase price of 1,000 Marks.