The Beleaguered Mark German Inflation in Postage Stamps: The Exhibit

This book is the story of the German hyperinflation of 1919-1923 through the lens of a postal history exhibit showing how the German post office dealt with out-of-control inflation. And what a story it is! Jeff’s gold-medal-winning exhibit tells the postal history of this turbulent time. There were 16 different rate periods in one year! It's a story of World War I reparations, treaties, occupations, political unrest (including an assassination), 125,000 telegraph poles, privately printed labels serving as postage stamps, new banks, new currency, and more.The post-World War I hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic was not the first or even the most severe when compared to the post-World War II Hungarian Inflation or the Zimbabwean Inflation of the early 2000s, but the collapse of the German Mark impoverished millions of people and gave Adolf Hitler his first chance at seizing power, precipitating World War II.These German stamps with surcharges in values of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions (!) of German reichsmarks, have captured stamp collectors’ interest for one hundred years.The exhibit shows postal covers from each of the German post office’s twenty-three rate periods with usages from each one and chronicles the attempts of the postal service to deal with the extraordinary inflation during the economic chaos that devastated Germany following WWI.On 1 December 1923, a new German Rentenmark, backed by Gold, was introduced and the inflation crisis came to an end.At a minimum, each period shows difficult-to-find first and last-day usage of basic local, national or international surface rates. Whenever possible, more complex rates and/or "exotic" usages are shown, including special "treaty" rates, air and special delivery, cross-border rates, remailed material, COD delivery, and service of legal documents.There are also examples of re-used "adversity" covers, stampless "postpaid" markings, massive frankings, unusual destinations, the usages of provincial overprints, and roulette perforations. First-day commercial usages of stamps (per the Michel catalog) are also included. However, no attempt is made to show every tariff nor the study of the 250+ stamps used between October 1919 and November 1923.Enjoy the stamp exhibit. It’s one of the important chapters in philately and a treat for all stamp collectors and stamp exhibitorsAnother great exhibit from Exhibitors Press. Read more