• Many German notgeld have references to 'Goethe' on them. Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) was a German playwright, poet, novelist and dramatist.
  

• The notgeld issued by towns in the district of Pinneberg, are all printed by the same firm, Konrad Hanf. They are all sets containing 6 notes, usually, 2*25, 2*50, 2*75pf or 20,30,40,60,70,80pf pieces. (Appen,Bokel,Ellerbek,Kurzenmoor,Tangstedt etc.) Printing for these sets was limited to 10,000 for each community except for Kummerfeld.
  

• Notgeld from Brocken, dated 1.7.1921 - These Brockenhaus restaurant notes, featuring the witch theme of 'Walpurgisnacht' (April 30th) are signed by Rudolph Schade, der brockenwirt or propietor of the restaurant. Schierke, the name of the nearest town, does not appear on the notes issued by the Brockenhaus. They are listed as Lm.1147. Most of the witch or devil orgy themed notgeld seems to centre around the Brocken, which is the highest mountain in the great Harz range, which stretches across central Germany.
  

• A lot of people contact me seeking my advise on values of notes. It amazes me that people think a note of so many million marks must be worth a great deal of money! These sorts of notes were issued in times of hyper-inflation and it is purported that it took wheelbarrow loads of this money to buy everyday items such as loaves of bread.
  

• There is a lovely set of notgeld from Stutzerbach, which features glass blowing, which was performed in this town. On the notes, where it says 'Weinachten', it is refering to 24th December (Christmas eve).
  

• Was the German inflation of the early 1920's the worst inflation that ever hit an economy? NO!! The inflation that hit the Hungarian economy in 1946, was far worse. (Notes there were issued in 'pengos').
  

• Notgeld was issued on several different types of medium. I list metal (coins), porcelain, paper, card, coal, leather, silk, linen, jute, velvet, playing cards, bread wrappers, corrogated cardboard, waxed paper, re-cycled wall paper & cake labels. There are probably others.
  

• Many notgeld pieces (variants) quite often differ between each other with extremely hard to see differences. Be sure to check your notes carefully and make sure you catalogue correctly. As a rule, I don't go out of my way to collect these small variants, but if they happen to come my way, then I will keep it.
  

• The very detailed and picturesque notes from Altrahlstedt are only serienscheine if they do not have the big black signature written across them.
  

• Check your watermarks. The value of the note can alter significantly. Konto numbers (account numbers) that appear on most notes are best if they are really low. Occasionally, notes may be missing them. These are usually valued higher in the catalogues. Some notes were never issued with Konto numbers so you should be aware of that too. Many minor variants exist because different types of asterisk and different styles of 'Nr' & 'No.' were used. Include the different sized and coloured fonts and sometimes the use of different letters on a notgeld and the variants can run a single note into just under a hundred!
  

• The basic price for 1 piece of 'common' German notgeld is currently 60p here in England. The 'big blue' serienscheine catalogue (which lists all known variants) by K.Lindman, lists at 1 Euro, again, about 60p. In the States, the average price appears to be about 1 dollar a piece. These are only rough guidelines and the scarcer notes fetch far higher prices. Word of warning - be careful when sellers decribe their notes as 'scarce'. There are several reputable banknote dealers out there (amongst the casual sellers) who know what they are talking about. I have found Beate Rauch and Philip Phipps are very trustworthy. (Also, please see my own websaleslist on the main page, if you haven't already seen it. My prices tend to be slightly cheaper!!) Others, unfortunately..........well I'll leave it to you to decide!

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