From: barth@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (barth.richards)
Subject: Re: Finding Money
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:19:08 GMT


In article <1992Nov8.194223.29773@news.clarkson.edu> billp@voyager.chm.clarkson.edu (Bill Plunkett) writes:

>A friend of mine was leafing through an old (C 1909) story book she
>had in her collection when she found two bank notes inside.
>
>The first is a fifty dollar note issued by the "Confederate States of
>America" and bearing the date "Richmond, Feb 17th, 1864.
>
>The second is a "Reichsbanknote" issued in Berlin on 1 Februar, 1923.
>It bears two eagle-crests of the Reichsbankdirektorium, a picture of
>some guy with long hair and funny hat, and a neet looking water mark
>down the right side.
>
>Obviously, the first item has no value as currency, but might have
>considerable collector value.  Anyone have any idea?  Who to ask?

The answer is, in short: it depends.

The first question is whether it is a genuine Confederate note, or one of
the myriad replicas that were later made.  The genuine notes were printed
on very thin paper that feels almost like tissue paper.  I have seen many
reproductions and replicas, but none, that I can recall, were printed on
anything that was like the original paper.

If it is genuine, then the condition of the note becomes important.  The
date indicates that it is from the 7th printing (the last), and is one of
the more common Confederate notes.  To make a wild guess without knowing its
condition and not having a catalog in front of me, I'd say that it is
probably worth $20 to $30.

>We're just as curious about the second one.  Is it old or rare enough
>to be collectible, or is it simply worth it's face value?

The answer, again, is: it depends.

>Does anyone
>know, for that matter, if it's even still redeemable (the denomination
>is "marks") at face value?

It is *definately* not redemable.  (Oh that it were!  With the mark
currently at about US$0.65, and me with literally several *billion* marks
in my possession--Don't I wish!)

As far as collectible value, again, it depends.  First off, what
denomination is it?  Many German notes of that period indicated the
denomination in words only (no numbers), though it shouldn't be too
difficult to figure out what it says.

Look for large lettering that has a word (or more than one word) followed
by the word "mark."  The word before it should be the number of marks.
The basic building blocks of German number names that you are likely to
see on banknotes are as follows:

                  eine = one
                  zwei = two
                  funf = five
                  zehn = ten
               zwanzig = twenty
               funfzig = fifty
               hundert = hundred
               tausend = thousand
               million = million
             milliarde = billion
               billion = trillion   


Secondly, what condition is it in?

My guess is that the note is probably fairly common, as most German notes
from that period are, but you never know.


If you post the details on these two notes, I can look them up for you.

-- 
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88  Barth Richards                  "Language is a virus from outer space."  88
88  att!ihlpf!barth                           - William S. Burroughs         88
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