40 Billion Worth Of Stamps On German Cover.

Feed backs and opinions appreciated. Thanks.

40 billion Marks on November 17, 1923 were worth approx 17c in
US currency at that time.

Edit: actually I believe that 40Bil M was more like 1c US

In my 2005/06 Michel Deutschland the 40 Billion M stamp (Mi 328)
shows 2 Euro used, don't know how much on a cover.

Great date on the cover... November 1923 was very,very near the end of the hyper-inflation period. The German government started a new bank (the Rentenbank) and the currency changed. ONE Rentenmark was equivalent to 1 trillion old Marks.

Dear Selva and all,

I recently have joined the forum and was looking for information on German Infla stamp and found this interesting thread.

According to the Infla Berlin, the date on the cover, Nov. 17, 1923 corresponds to postage fee period (Portoperiode) 24: 12.11.1923 - 19.11.1923 (8 days).

The 40 Milliarden franking is for foreign mail up to 20 grams, which is consistent to the address on the cover; Karlsbad, Czech Republic.

However, as you may be well aware of, we must be extremely careful about cancelled Infla stamps and covers/postcards, as there are numbers of forged cancellations existing in the market.

I checked the INFLA Berlin publication of forged Infla cancellations (INFLA Bucherei 13, 2.Auflage, "Falschstempel der Inflation 1919-1923") and it lists the "MUENCHEN 28" double circle datestamp with star (*) and letter "a" as forged, but the datestamps on your cover seem to be different; so to further ensure the authenticity of the cover, we must ask for the expert's opinion whether this version of "MUENCHEN 28" double circle datestamp is genuine of not...

It is sometimes quite easy to figure out forged Infla cover by examining the consistency between the date and the postage fee period. But even they are consistent, there remains the question whether the cancellation is genuine or not, so it is a real challenge for collectors like myself.

I strongly recommend you to have a look at the web pages of INFLA Berlin, where they do provide very detailed information on this interesting topic.

Thanks for the interesting cover !

unechan @ Osaka, Japan
- Interested in Japan stamps and revenues from Meiji period, German Reich stamps -