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 Replies: 6 / Views: 1,137 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1126 Posts |
I was wondering if some of our resident history buffs
know how the issue of current circulating coinage
is addressed during a currency re-valuation
Such as Argentina's financial crash in the late 90's,
Germany's Wiemar Republic between 1921 and 1923
Was wondering if it was left in place at current face value
or was it all recalled and melted for metal content
and cheaper metal coinage substituted?
Comments and Opinions are Very welcome and appreciated
Thank You
Terry
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3670 Posts |
I can't answer your question but I heard an intersting story the other day along this topic, of a woman who rolled a couple of wheel barrels full of German currency up to a bank right after World War II and left them there. Then someone came along and dumped the the German coins into the street and made off with the wheel barrels....
Kind of sounds like an old folk legend, but I would not doubt similar events like that took place at that time....
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Pillar of the Community
United States
830 Posts |
I had an instructor from Germany that told me the same story in 1987. He's the one that got me started buying PMs in 1987. Thanks George!  |
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Moderator
 Australia
16868 Posts |
For the most part, when hyperinflation hits and a currency collapses, the coinage is the first thing to disappear. If the coins were made of precious metals, they'd get hoarded. If not, there might be some hoarding for scrap metal value but for the most part governments withdrew them from circulation and people got rid of them as soon as possible. If you need to carry around wheelbarrowfuls of cash to buy stuff, you might as well make the wheelbarrow as light as possible and carry notes rather than coins.
Issuing new coinage is expensive. If a currency really starts to slide, the government usually stops making coins altogether, rather than trying to keep up with runaway inflation. Coins are supposed to last for years in circulation, but if there's reasonable expectation that the coins will become worthless within a year or two, even the most stubborn governments recognize the futility and stop issuing new coins.
Post-WWI Germany, for instance, issued aluminium 3 mark coins, then aluminium 200 mark coins, and that was the end of new inflationary coinage designs. The mark eventually collapsed to 4.2 trillion to the US dollar, within a year of the 200 mark coin being issued.
As for what the government does with its stockpiles of suddenly worthless coinage, that would be up to them. Most would probably sell them off for scrap metal.
Rarely do coinages from an old, devalued currency get recycled when a new coinage is issued, but here are exceptions. When Suriname replaced it's devalued guilder currency with the Surinamese dollar in 2004, the old coins - which had not been seen in actual circulation since the early 1990s - were declared legal tender for their face value in new cents - a 1000-fold increase in value for the government, and for anyone else who happened to have put away a stash of them.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
Quote:
a woman who rolled a couple of wheel barrels full of German currency up to a bank right after World War II and left them there. Then someone came along and dumped the the German coins into the street and made off with the wheel barrels....
Kind of sounds like an old folk legend, but I would not doubt similar events like that took place at that time....
I've heard of a woman in 1923 having an egg basket stolen and the worthless paper money dumped. I'd call this story urban legend on three counts: - Wheelbarrows, plural, would be almost impossible to push, even empty.
- Coins weigh about 75# per gallon, and even one wheelbarrow would hold several gallons. Unless the LOL was an Olympian...
- Hundreds of pounds of scrap metal would be worth stealing, regardless.
I have seen an alleged first-hand report of moving companies buying bales of 1923 German money to pack dishware in. That at least makes sense. In answer to the OP question, it would be demonetized. For example, France underwent a 100:1 deflation in 1960 (Betcha didn't know that, huh?). If you had an old 100 franc coin, you could trade it for one new franc (prolly by a cut-off date), or keep it to level out a table leg, but it was no longer spendable. When they started the yurro, each country had redemption dates, often different ones for coins or paper. I don't think any of the old stuff (ptas, francs, lepta, marks, etc) can be spent anymore. I figured out how many semi trailer loads of stuff worth less than a nickel would get demonitized. It was a heckuva convoy. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
830 Posts |
Quote:
Rarely do coinages from an old, devalued currency get recycled when a new coinage is issued, but here are exceptions. When Suriname replaced it's devalued guilder currency with the Surinamese dollar in 2004, the old coins - which had not been seen in actual circulation since the early 1990s - were declared legal tender for their face value in new cents - a 1000-fold increase in value for the government, and for anyone else who happened to have put away a stash of them. Wow, that would be like a silver dollar becoming a 1000 dollar coin. Edited by GoThunder
08/02/2011 9:56 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3670 Posts |
"Hundreds of pounds of scrap metal would be worth stealing, regardless."
I agree with all three points Fredd, esp this one above....
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Replies: 6 / Views: 1,137 |
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Posted 08/02/2011 4:46 pm
