The Vast Quantity of Notes Printed

10 Billion Reichsbank Notes

Throughout the inflation, the Reichsbank in Berlin had to re-issue more and more banknotes as previous issues lost their value. In the end, a colossal 10,000,000,000 notes had been issued.

In order to produce all of these, a total of 30 paper mills were in full production providing paper, and 132 private printing firms were contracted to assist the Reichsbank print the actual notes.

To give a rough idea of the sheer volume of paper printed, if the 10 billion banknotes printed had been put end to end, the line would have been three times as long as the distance from Earth to the moon.

(Note that this figure also excludes the vast amount of notes printed by the Railways, cities and various municpal bodies!)

Kaiserslautern

Here is a fascinating table which was reproduced in Courtney Coffing's April 1994 issue of The Fraktur which neatly lists the 1.7 billion billion marks printed on 3.8 million notes issued by the city of Kaiserslautern. (The title says: "In remembrance of the issuing of Notgeld throughout the municipality of Kaiserslautern in the year 1923")


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					       Zur

			     Erinnerung

				    an die Ausgabe von Notgeld

				     durch die Stadtgemeinde

			   Kaiserslautern   

					  im Jahre 1923.

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 1)  50 Tausend Mark-Scheine mit dem Datum 15.8.1923 99 900 Stück =		4 995 000 000,-

 2) 100    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   "  75 500   "   =             7 550 000 000,-

 3) 200    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   "  50 700   "   =            10 140 000 000,-

 4) 500    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   " 201 500   "   =           100 750 000 000,-

 5) 500    "         "	      "   "    "   10.9.  " 200 700   "   =           100 350 000 000,-

 6)   1 Million      "        "   "    "   15.8.  " 158 700   "   =	      158 700 000 000,-

 7)   1    "         "	      "   "    "   15.9.  " 160 000   "   =           160 000 000 000,-

 8)   2    "         "	      "   "    "   15.8.  " 150 000   "   =           300 000 000 000,-

 9)   5    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   "  39 800   "   =           199 000 000 000,-

10)  10    "         "	      "   "    "   10.9.  " 159 800   "   =         1 598 000 000 000,-

11)  20    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   " 201 500   "   =         4 030 000 000 000,-

12)  50    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   " 320 100   "   =        16 005 000 000 000,-

13) 100    "         "	      "   "    "   20.9.  " 200 800   "   =        20 080 000 000 000,-

14) 500    "         "	      "   "    "   10.10. " 289 500   "   =       144 750 000 000 000,-

15)   5 Milliarden   "        "   "    "    " "   " 199 700   "   =	  998 500 000 000 000,-

16)  10    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   " 437 600   "   =     4 376 000 000 000 000,-

17)  50    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   " 240 000   "   =    12 000 000 000 000 000,-

18) 100    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   "  81 600   "   =     8 160 000 000 000 000,-

19)   1 Billion      "        "   "    "    " "   " 188 300   "   =   188 300 000 000 000 000,-

20)   5    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   " 300 000   "   = 1 500 000 000 000 000 000,-

21)  10    "         "	      "   "    "    " "   " 220 000   "   = nicht im Verkehr

						  ---------------   -----------------------------

				  Zusammen	  3 875 700 Stück   1 714 022 004 485 000 000,-

in Worten Eine Trillion siebenhundertvierzehn Billiarden zweiundzwanzig Billionen vier Milliarden vierhunderfünfundachzig

Millionen Mark.  In den Verkehr waren gebracht: 1 514 021 727 840 000 000,- in Worten Eine Trillion fünfhundertvierzehn

Billiarden einundzwanzig Billionen siebenhundertsiebenundzwanzig Milliarden achtundvierzig Millionen Mark.



   Kaiserslautern, im April 1924.			      Die Stadtverwaltung.

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Die Entwürfe zu Nr. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 u. 8 stammen vom Stadtbauamte Kaiserslautern, alle übrigen vom

Pfälzischen Gewerbemuseum in Kaiserslautern.

		      Mit der Herstellung waren betraut die Drückereien:

Pfälzer Volksbote, Pfälz, Freie Presse, J.Rheinberger Nachf., Emil Rohr, Philipp Schneider und

Thieme'sche Drückereien, alle in Kaiserslautern.

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This page was updated by Richard Holmes on Friday, 27 July 2001