Posted 02/29/2008 04:06 am
$3.76 for the pair sounds fair enough. Not too many places sell foreign notes for less than $2 each.
East Germany, of course, no longer exists, and the country that absorbed it (Germany) no longer recognises or accepts ostmarks. So these notes have zero "face value" - all they have is numismatic value. Their situation is therefore analogous to Confederate States notes.
The numismatic value isn't very high at the moment, since it was less than 20 years ago that the ostmark was abolished. Most people who would want examples of these notes, already have them.
At some point in the future, this may well change. The total supply is actually quite small, since hardly anyone held onto ostmarks once Germany announced that they would (briefly) exchange ostmarks for deutschemarks at a 1:1 ratio - far better than their usual black market exchange rate. Once virtually all the ostmarks were handed in, the entire stockpile was buried in a disused military bunker, and later burned when they discovered the bunker had been broken into. So the only survivors are the ones kept by collectors, tourist souvenirs (and there aren't too many of those, since for many years, taking ostmarks out of East Germany was illegal) and in private hoards stashed away and forgotten. And the ones stolen from the bunker.
I think East German notes are "sleepers".
East Germany, of course, no longer exists, and the country that absorbed it (Germany) no longer recognises or accepts ostmarks. So these notes have zero "face value" - all they have is numismatic value. Their situation is therefore analogous to Confederate States notes.
The numismatic value isn't very high at the moment, since it was less than 20 years ago that the ostmark was abolished. Most people who would want examples of these notes, already have them.
At some point in the future, this may well change. The total supply is actually quite small, since hardly anyone held onto ostmarks once Germany announced that they would (briefly) exchange ostmarks for deutschemarks at a 1:1 ratio - far better than their usual black market exchange rate. Once virtually all the ostmarks were handed in, the entire stockpile was buried in a disused military bunker, and later burned when they discovered the bunker had been broken into. So the only survivors are the ones kept by collectors, tourist souvenirs (and there aren't too many of those, since for many years, taking ostmarks out of East Germany was illegal) and in private hoards stashed away and forgotten. And the ones stolen from the bunker.
I think East German notes are "sleepers".
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
Nice notes; I also like their coins!
