Coin Community Family of Web Sites
Royal Canadian Mint products, Canadian, Polish, American, and world coins and banknotes. Coin, Banknote and Medal Collectors's Online Mall 300,000 items to help build your collection! Shop for APMEX Bullion on eBay!Shop CCF Members on eBay! Vancouvers #1 Coin and Paper Money Dealer Specializing in Modern Numismatics








Username:
Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?


This page may contain links that result in small commissions to keep this free site up and running.

Welcome Guest! Registering and/or logging in will remove the anchor (bottom) ads. It's Free!

German Banknotes With Waffen SS Overprint/Stamp

To participate in the forum you must log in or register.
Author Replies: 8 / Views: 4,258Next Topic  
Valued Member
ShareBear's Avatar
Canada
499 Posts
 Posted 07/10/2014  7:52 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add ShareBear to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
Lately on ebay I have seen a number of Hyperinflation era German banknotes with Waffen SS stamps on them.

There seem to be 3 or 4 different types of overprint.

These don't look authentic to me. The period when these notes were circulated does not look right. Second, I have not heard of SS dealing with currency except to circulate concentration camp currency.


Anyone know if these are real overprints or modern day fakes.

Moderator
Learn More...
Sap's Avatar
Australia
16805 Posts
 Posted 07/10/2014  8:31 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Hyperinflation notes should have been long gone by the time the Nazis came to power; I can't see any reason why they'd re-use or re-purpose banknotes of what they would have regarded as a discredited, failed regime (the Weimar Republic) rather than simply destroying them.

Sounds fake to me; a pathetic attempt at hyping the value of cheap common hyperinflation notes by somehow linking them to the Nazis.
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
Pillar of the Community
United States
742 Posts
 Posted 07/12/2014  09:07 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add lettow to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The notes are genuine but the overstamps are modern fantasies.

These have been appearing for the last five years or so. Someone is taking common notes and placing these overstamps on them. If you research the histories of some of the units you will see that many of the stamps do not make any sense on the notes they are on. The SA stamps are the most obvious fantasies as the SA was supressed before many of these notes were issued. There are Allied Military Currency notes with these fake stamps on them. Almost all of the overprints with Jewish themes are faked also.

The problem appears to have started in stamps where falsified postmarks were applied to covers and this practice has bled into paper money.
New Member
ninjabeerfiesta's Avatar
Spain
1 Posts
 Posted 05/24/2026  04:27 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add ninjabeerfiesta to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Hi all, hoping for some expert guidance here.

I'm a collector based in Barcelona and I've come across two Dutch banknotes for sale from two different local vendors, both bearing what appears to be the same Waffen-SS circular stamp — blue ink, eagle and swastika motif, with unit text around the circumference that appears to read something close to "II-Totenkopf-Sturmbann" though I can't confirm this with certainty from the photos.

The two notes are:
Note 1: A 1938 Dutch Zilverbon 2.50 Gulden — pre-war note, so the occupation timeline works cleanly.

Note 2: A 1 Gulden Muntbiljet issued under the Royal Decree of 18 mei 1945 — printed in London by Thomas de La Rue after liberation. The Netherlands was liberated May 5, 1945. This note couldn't have existed before May 18 at the earliest, making it physically impossible for an active SS unit to have stamped it during occupation.

The stamps on both notes appear identical in design, ink color, and circumference text.

My concern: if Note 2's stamp is impossible to authenticate, it was likely applied post-war using a replica stamp. But that raises the question of whether Note 1's stamp is equally suspect, given they appear to come from the same stamp.
I have no expertise in verifying SS administrative stamps. My questions:

Are there known catalogs or reference materials for Waffen-SS unit stamps that could identify this specific unit?

Is there a way to distinguish genuine occupation-era ink from modern replica stamps?

How common is it for dealers to add SS stamps to Dutch occupation currency to increase value?

I'm attaching photos of both stamps for reference. Any help appreciated.
German-Banknotes-With-Waffen-SS-Overprint/Stamp
German-Banknotes-With-Waffen-SS-Overprint/Stamp
German-Banknotes-With-Waffen-SS-Overprint/Stamp
Pillar of the Community
walk2dwater's Avatar
Canada
2571 Posts
 Posted 05/24/2026  11:26 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add walk2dwater to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I have seen fanciful stamps on banknotes from France, Germany & Poland & other occupied nations. All of round "Waffen SS" & Eagle like stamps I have seen must be spurious post production gimmicks (IMO) b/c the timelines have been impossible. It also seems illogical that the same stamps would appear on money that was produced before the Nazis came to power (hyperinflation series) which we've seen. Legit stamps on POW camp cash were low key "plain Jane" info/camp, German text stamps within rectangular shaped borders.
Here's a thread started on the subject & there are other threads with the same queries:
https://goccf.com/t/412600

Here's a legit lot of Nazi WW2 banknotes from ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18771400...tamped+notes

If you look closely on the 20 Marks (top note), you'll see the likely inspiration for the stamp. There is an eagle on the Nazi Swastika BUT it is part of the design of the note (not a stamp!)

It is also possible that these different stamps we keep seeing was an official Nazi ink stamp (intended for internal documents) which was purchased & then used to stamp banknotes by unscrupulous sellers (to get an inflated price on a regular note doctored as something rare). Personally, I believe it may be both (some are just cheap manufactured ink-jet printed & others may have been defaced with legit Nazi ink stamps). The problem is that they're spurious (not issued as far we can tell).

Here are more of the scam stamps (different ink pad) from Algeria. I would not buy these notes unless I wanted defaced notes (with spurious, unnecessary ink).
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/80005219...tamped+notes

Moderator
Learn More...
Sap's Avatar
Australia
16805 Posts
 Posted 05/24/2026  9:20 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Apparently, many of the stamps that are used to make these countermarkings were mass-produced in Poland and Eastern Europe, for sale to Western souvenir-hunters after the Cold War.

The second word on this stamp after "Totenkopfsturmbann" is "Buchenwald" - this particular stamp claims to be issued for/from the Buchenwald concentration camp. There is literally no reason why the SS in this camp would have stamped Dutch notes. While this camp did indeed hold many Dutch prisoners, any money used within the camp would have been Lagergeld (camp scrip), denominated in German currency. And any Dutch notes confiscated from prisoners would have been either destroyed or funnelled towards Nazi espionage operations, rather than stamped like this.
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
Moderator
Learn More...
Sap's Avatar
Australia
16805 Posts
 Posted 05/24/2026  9:35 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Is there a way to distinguish genuine occupation-era ink from modern replica stamps?

In terms of chemically analysing the ink on a stamp like this in an effort to prove the veracity of a stamp, it could in theory be done; you could in theory prove something was 100% fake, though it would not be 100% reliable as proof of authenticity. Some kind of non-destructive surface analysis, such as ATR FTIR, ought to do the trick.

The issue would be with calibration. You'd need to analyse a whole bunch of provably genuine Nazi-era stamps, to find out the kinds of inks that they used. Then analyse a bunch of modern-era inks, to spot any differences. A key telltale would be detecting a synthetic dye in the ink which did not exist in the 1940s. Of course, the forger could counteract this simply by using some verifiably old ink.
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
Moderator
Learn More...
jbuck's Avatar
United States
187446 Posts
Valued Member
Empty_Pockets's Avatar
United States
117 Posts
 Posted Yesterday   10:35 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Empty_Pockets to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Hyperinflation in Germany happened in 1923 during the Weimar Republic. To combat hyperinflation the Germans created a new bank note, the Retenmark. The Retenmark was backed by land and industrial assets, this occurred at the last months of 1923. After things settled down, the Reichmark replaced the Retenmark.

If the notes you are seeing have a huge amount like millions or billions then they were printed in 1923. Some hyperinflation notes were printed in 1922, but 1923 was when the crazy hyperinflation occurred.

The Nazis were not in power in 1924. In fact Hitler only became chancellor in 1933 and didn't become Fuhrer until 1934. So to have a Nazi symbol on a bank note dated 1923 would most certainly be faked. If the note is a Reichmark dated say 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland, and had the Nazi symbol stamped on it, then I would be more convinced that it was an original stamp.
  Replies: 8 / Views: 4,258Next Topic  

To participate in the forum you must log in or register.



    




Disclaimer: While a tremendous amount of effort goes into ensuring the accuracy of the information contained in this site, Coin Community assumes no liability for errors. Copyright 2005 - 2026 Coin Community Family- all rights reserved worldwide. Use of any images or content on this website without prior written permission of Coin Community or the original lender is strictly prohibited.
Contact Us  |  Advertise Here  |  Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

Coin Community Forum © 2005 - 2026 Coin Community Forums
It took 0.28 seconds to rattle this change. Forums