Here's another one from deep in the collection.
In 1938, Germany began a program under which German citizens could register to buy a new Volkswagen. The cost of a sedan was 990 RM, plus any fees for special add-ons, insurance, or transportation.
To buy a car, the German citizen would make payments in advance, for which he would receive savings stamps in either red or green color. Each stamp denoted 5 RM paid.
The stamps were printed in sheets of 50.
The stamps were mounted in a savings book and cancelled, with each savings book accounting for 250 RM paid.
In theory, once the buyer had paid the requisite price and their registration number was reached, they would receive the car. Unfortunately for the buyers, the war intervened. The factory was converted to war production in 1939, and those few buyers who had taken delivery of a car had their cars confiscated in exchange for a voucher promising replacement after the war.
This particular booklet shows that the buyer had paid 1000 RM (booklets 1-4 @ 250 RM each) of a total purchase price of 1190 RM.
Included with this booklet was the receipt from the turn-in of booklet #4.
With the end of the program, however, the buyer never made use of this booklet, #5. The two stamps pasted onto this booklet are forgeries attached after the fact.
After the war, thousands of citizens who had paid money toward a car sued for reimbursement, but they were unsuccessful.
Today, there are many copies of this savings stamp for sale on the Internet, and because of their unique design, they are relatively expensive. Unfortunately, many are forgeries, and it can be difficult to tell them apart. Genuine copies have a very tiny, faint "DAF" watermark. The easiest way to see the watermark is under UV light at just the right angle, or in a very high res scan that's been manipulated using photo editing software (that's the method I used below).
Posted 03/04/2013 07:19 am
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