Short of change? Print your own
Notgeld, German for emergency money, first appeared at the beginning of World War One and was issued until 1924. Through these notes we can see the entire story of Germany’s experience with out-of-control inflation between the wars.
With the greater economic activity caused by war, the German government was unable to keep up with the increased demand for small change. To supplement government money issue, towns began to print their own forms of unofficial currency. The majority of the notes were printed on paper, but an assortment of materials such as ceramic, wood, cloth, metal foil, cardboard and leather were used. The faces of these notes feature everything from romantic folklore to the most grotesque social satire. Some of the images depicted can be a little odd or even bizarre, but with images of historic personages, buildings and scenes, they leave behind a cultural record of Germany during this period.
In 1967, the Bank’s National Currency Collection had the good fortune to acquire a large collection of notgeld from Germany and other European nations. The bulk of the collection consists of 15,567 notes from Germany and 3,901 from Austria, with very small numbers from Hungary, Belgium and Poland. At the time, the entire collection was accessioned as groups based on their countries of origin (accessioned: accepted into the collection and assigned a registration number unique to the group of objects). In order to digitize and update the National Currency Collection database, each individual note has to be assigned its own number, scanned and assessed by curatorial staff in order to update the information for each note.
As part of the project, each paper note is being carefully re-housed in acid-free, lignin-free, buffered tissue, and tagged with a new, individual accession number. The notes are being kept in their original scrapbooks in order to preserve the collection as it was assembled. Records suggest that this collection was from the estate of a Bürgermeister (“chairman of the executive council” or more commonly, mayor) who collected emergency money during WWI until the early 1930s.
This project has been in progress for some time and to date almost 7,000 notes have been rehoused, numbered and digitized. Future projects will include creating proper housings for the non-paper notes, as well as devising a conservation strategy for some of the damaged and fragile notes.
This is just one of the collection team’s many ongoing projects.
We want to hear from you! Do you have an idea for a blog post you’d like to see?
Content type(s):
Blog
Subject(s):
Collection
The Museum Blog
April 30, 2021
An image of a river of logs floating behind Parliament Hill has long lived in Canadian collective memory thanks to a bank note, the Scenes of Canada $1 bill.
Mishap on the dollar
By: Graham Iddon
Content type(s):
Blog
Subject(s):
Collection,
History
March 23, 2021
Putting an industrial facility on a bank note is not a casual decision. At the end of the 1960s, such places were earning a bad reputation for pollution. There was actually a good reason for this choice, but it wasn’t obvious to many Canadians.
The Last Smokestack
By: Graham Iddon
Content type(s):
Blog
Subject(s):
Collection
February 26, 2021
There might be only a handful of basic game formats, but there is an infinity of variations—a surprising number of which require the skills we need to manage our daily economic lives.
Playing with Economy
By: Graham Iddon
January 4, 2021
With his superpowers, Peter Parker would no doubt do a fabulous job of tiling his kitchen backsplash. But as Spider-Man, he has more valuable things to do with his time.
Economic Opportunity Costs
By: Graham Iddon
November 30, 2020
For daily users of modern money, getting an understanding of the old British system of currency can be an act of confusion and wonder. But it’s also a peep into 13 centuries of European numismatic history.
How Many Groats Are in a Noble?
By: Graham Iddon
Content type(s):
Blog
Subject(s):
Collection,
History
