Notgeld

@notgeldman, yes I agree with you. We weren't exactly talking about the same thing. I thinking that we were thinking of different aspects of collecting. If you just want a good variety you can get 1000 different for Euro 400, but yes if you want complete sets of the slightly less common ones, or want to fill in the blanks, this will not help after the second purchase. That is why I did not get a third batch of 1000.

My Grabowski/ Mehl catalogue (2009) does show 100s of expensive ones, but given that there are thousands that are not, the vast majority 90%) ARE inexpensive.

Anyhow,collecting styles differ and the bulk style gives a lot of inexpensive fun, but certainly quickly reaches its limits for a more comprehensive collection, which I agree can quickly add up.

It is kind of like bulk world coin lots-good for beginners but of limited value for long time collectors.

On a slightly different note, are you by any chance Tony? If so I think that you are the person I made a number of purchases from some years back. No complaints about them, if you are wondering.

@oriole - Yes - I am Tony (TG-M). Its good to chat notgeld again! The great thing about notgeld collecting is the vast subject matter, the differing areas of interest it can cover and, as you mention, the fairly low price for the average piece...............and you can get a nice little collection together with those.

@ScotsGreyhound - you are probably aware that the Quedlinburg note you have from 1916 is from the notgeld category 'KGL' (Kriegsgefangenenlager - P.O.W).

Here is a lovely 'set' of 3 KGL pieces dating from 1917 from the Officer P.O.W camp at Celle:




Several of the P.O.W / KGL issues, used the same basic design of note, but then stamped their location on the back of the notes. Collectors will see these types fairly easily out there.....

Lovely group!

Anton Geiger is a lovely and very knowledgeable guy. I met him on several occasions and we just 'hit it off' on the notgeld front. I had been writing to him about notgeld since I was around 10 years old.......so it was great when I actually met him, face-to-face. He was able to help me a lot over the years, but unfortunately he is no longer dealing in notgeld.
I've met in person other notgeld dealers, experts and catalogue writers of course.......Colin Narbeth from the IBNS, who is unfortunately no longer with us,.....Reinhard Tieste and Kai Lindman for example. When I got into notgeld collecting, I really did put a lot of effort, energy and money into building up my notgeld collection.............which, by the way, I am now slowly selling off in my retirement. The German notgeld experts seemed slightly puzzled why a young boy from England was so passionate and much more knowledgeable than the casual collector about the notgeld from their country. It's the 'collector' in me......which I got from my Dad. He used to collector lots of things.....and as he always taught me and told me............if you are going to collect something, do it properly and find everything out that there is to know about the subject and one day, you might even become a subject matter expert.........even if I say it myself. I'm still learning things about the notgeld issues, even after 46 years of collecting!
Below is one of my favourite notgeld, issued in Papenburg.

It shows the German official, collecting his taxes.....but the poor man hasn't even got enough money for food. I like the note because of the depiction, but also because it has what it is, clearly on it - NOTGELD. The town of issue is clear as well - Papenburg, along with the note's face value - 75pf. It is clearly a piece of serienscheine notgeld so the date of issue is 1921. At the bottom of the note, it states:

'The money must be taken from the people / You can't shake it from the trees.'

I really like the look and design of this 20m note.



Issued in Niederlahnstein and dating from 1922, it is a 'grossgeld' piece of notgeld (ie) it's face value is over 1 mark. If the face value was in pfennigs - less than 1m (100 pfennigs) then it would be a piece of 'kleingeld'.
The note comes in 3 colours:



I'll have to do a bit of research now and find out what the press, devil and the money coming out of the man really represent......and what it says........watch this space!....

There is a full article on my very informative notgeld website for people who want further info.