Cancelled 2 Million Mark Stamp.

I bought a collection today and have been delightfully overwhelmed with extraordinary examples of choice stamps. This is just one of many. I never could have imagined finding a cancelled inflation stamp.

Sorry it's 10 million!

It's actually 10 billion Marks

Yes, "milliarden" is "billion" in Germany. Talk about inflation! And we complain about 68 cents to mail a first-class letter!

Old German Lady: "Here, young man, I'd like to mail this letter first class mail."
German postal clerk: "Ja, fraulein, that'll be 20 billion marks, please."
[Old lady faints]

Thank you for the correction lithograving!

Yes DrewM, I could only imagine the level of sticker shock the citizens would have experienced during that time of inflation!

It is not so difficult to find a cancelled inflation stamp. The trick is to find one with a genuine cancellation mark.

Had to google this... the exchange rate was 1 USD = 1 Trillion Marks.

I don't know the german word for trillion, but no wonder these stamps are in most collections from that time. A mint 10 billion mark stamp for a penny.

Billion(en) = tausend Milliarden.

Using cash for kindling/fuel in Germany in 1923. At one point, a loaf of bread cost 200 billion marks.


Children playing with near worthless German banknotes.


Don

The currency reform was 1 December 1923. 1000 US Billion Marks(1000 German Milliarden) became one new mark. The last foreign letter rate period was 26 November to 30 November. The rate was then 320 US billion(German Milliarden) mark. However there was lack of stamp so the stamps were during this period sold at 4 times the face value. The most commonly seen foreign franking during this period is 4x20 Milliarden marks. Many of these cover have been saved so they often sell at only $10-$20 nowadays. The new foreign letter rate became 30 pfennige on December 1. The old stamps could still be used for some days but then at face value so to pay with old stamps you needed 300 German Milliarden. These covers are not so often seen and they are extra popular if old and new currency are mixed on the same cover.

Hi, although I am not an expert in german inflation stamps, I have been long obsessed with its fascinating history since I was spending my childhood in Hamburg, (West) Germany in the 1960s and 70s.

As mentioned by NSK, the challenge in collecting used Inflation stamps is to find one with a genuine cancellation. There even is a specialized list of forged cancellations on Inflation stamps, issued by INFLA Berlin, which is an excellent reference to grasp how frequently one can encounter a forged cancellation.



Another trick is to understand the extremely frequent and complex transition of the postal rate periods - called as "Portoperiode" - which sometimes have lasted only for a couple of days.

As for your 10 Milliarden stamp, the datestamp could be read as "...GART 28 NOV 23". This date, November 28, 1923, corresponds to Portoperiode 26, which lasted for only 5 days (e.g. from 26 to 30 November 1923). Representative postal rate was 40 Milliarden Mark for long-distance (Fernverkehr) postcard and for near-distance (Ortsverkehr) letters, 80 Milliarden Mark for long-distance letters, and so on. So theoretically your 10 Millarden Mark stamp, if genuine, should have been associated with a couple of other stamps to pay the required postage fee.

The whereabouts of "...GART" is unclear; it could be Stuttgart, and if so, the bad thing is it is listed in the aforementioned forged cancellation book - therefore there is a chance that it might be a forgery (of course it could be genuine).

So, I cannot judge either this is genuine or not, and this is the real trick for non-expert collector including myself...

To show the trickiness, here is an example of the 10 Milliarden Mark stamp used on cover from the same postage rate period (dated 27 Nov 1923):



This looks nice, but the postal rate of 20 Milliarden Mark seems to not fit any plausible usage, and the "PREETZ / HOLSTEIN" comb-type cancel is listed in the INFLA Berlin forged cancel book. So I am pretty sure that this is a forged cover.

And to close this rather long post, I'd like to show an interesting material, which I have posted in another thread a long time ago which I can't recall - a sheet of paper with lots of inflation stamps, cancelled.



I am still not quite sure what this is, but I do believe that this is an example showing how forged used inflation stamps were produced.

So either genuine or not, it is still interesting to collect used inflation stamps - lots of investigation could be done, which is a fun part of philately (at least to me).

Hope this might give you some idea how the used inflation stamps are challenging.

Regards,
- Hironobu

Excellent post Hironobu. Thank you for sharing all that information.

Indeed. I personally would not consider one of these genuine without an expertiser's mark on the reverse. This area is a minefield, for sure.

John

The cover with 2x10 Milliarden stamps is a correct rate. During the rate period 26-30 Nov the price and value of the stamps were 4 times the face value(see my previus message) so the 80 Milliarden rate is correctly paid here by 4x20=80 Milliarden

Dear aolsson;

Thank you so much for pointing my misunderstanding -




I have totally overlooked this fact, which I should have noticed if I had carefully read the explanations of the "Portoperiode" by INFLA BERLIN; it does clearly says that during this period (PP26 - 5 days duration),

"The special feature of this postage period is that the existing stamps were now sold or had to be accepted by the Reichspost at four times their value without any further marking."

Here is the original quote from INFLA Berlin webpage.




Your comment clarified the handwritten "porto 20 x 4" in pencil, which states the official fee of 80 Milliarden Mark, being paid by two 10 Milliarden Mark stamps. So lovely to know that this cover, at least, has a correct franking, and if genuine in all aspects, will be a nice example of the "Novemberbriefe" or "Novemberfrankaturen". Thanks !

- Hironobu