Hyperinflation – Weimar Republic Postage Stamps

20 Million Mark postage stamp

The Weimar Republic suffered from hyperinflation between 1921 and 1923. In 1918 the exchange rate had been 5.21 Mark to the US Dollar. By December 1923 the dollar was worth 4.2 trillion Mark (4,200,000,000,000 M). Before 1921, the postal rates for letters under 20g were 40 Pfennig for domestic mail and 80 Pfennig for foreign mail. By the end of 1923, these had to risen to 50 billion Mark and 300 billion Mark, respectively. At the peak of the inflation, bank notes with face values of up to 100 trillion Mark were in circulation and postage stamps in denominations up to 50 billion Mark were issued.

Postage stamps from the Weimar Republic of Germany

30 Thousand Mark postage stamp

100 Thousand Mark postage stamp

500 Thousand Mark postage stamp

800 Thousand Mark postage stamp

1 Million Mark postage stamp

2 Million Mark postage stamp

5 Million Mark postage stamp

10 Million Mark postage stamp

20 Million Mark postage stamp

20 Billion Mark postage stamp

4 thoughts on “Hyperinflation – Weimar Republic Postage Stamps”

I have one of these,it has 1000 and the mark postage states 125 in bold black and states ( eaufend) i think with a black line on bottom,as i am not a collector i have no clue of its value. please advise.thank you for your time and consideration on this matter.

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Graham Stephen says:

12 February 2011 at 07:46

I am not a collector either, but have found some further information about these stamps. Unused, they are only worth pennies, but considerably more if they have been franked.

There is some more background information here:

http://www.stamp-collecting-world.com/weimarrepublic_hyperb.html

And you could try browsing the Stanley Gibbons catalogue to look at prices:

http://mycollection.stanleygibbons.com/mc/search.asp

Try searching for Germany, 1923.

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Reply

Go to your local public library and look at the Scott’s Standard Postage Stamp Catalog for Germany. There are many more German inflation stamps than shown here. Unused, the majority are worth very little. However, properly used, and, very importantly certified as genuine by competent authorities, some of them are quite valuable. “Competent authorities” means a German “Bundesprufer,” or an organization such as the Amrican Philatelic Society expertization service. Many of the inexpensive stamps have fraudulent cancels.

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