might become a newbie - foreign currency interest...a few questions

[jordanscott]

Hi and thanks for putting up with some questions that I'm sure have been asked by hundreds of newbies before me.

 

I'm thinking of building a small collection of German currency, from 1918 - 2005. A couple paper denominations and a couple coin denominations from each year.

 

I've done a bit of research on the web but can't find anything specific to German coins and shops in MN, so hopefully somebody can provide a shop or two in the twin cities or burbs and maybe recommend a book/mag/guide specific to German, or at least European coins and paper.

 

Thanks.

[JamminJ]

I don't know anything about currency or Minnesota, but here's a pretty good book on German Coins. It's a catalog that covers every issus from all the assorted states up through the introduction of Euro coinage.

 

Lots of fun collecting Germany. Many of the WWI coins are readily available in very nice condition due to hoarding. Hyperinflation makes some of the early post war stuff easy to find as well as they became valueless so rapidly. Weimar and 3rd Reich are increasingly difficult to find in higher grades. Be careful with the Federal Republic stuff, many of the catalog values are way, way high.

 

Anything specific your're looking for?

[jordanscott]

I don't know enough yet to know what to really look into.

 

This is something i'm thinking of building, as a link to my father who died recently. He was German. So it's not something that I want to go out and find the rarest of issues or anything like that. He was born in 1918 and died in 2005 and I want to get a bit of the history of his country as a link. So really, just looking right now at maybe a 5 and 10 mark note or the like. Nothing extravagent, just common currency.

 

I figured the war era currencies would be tougher to come by than anything else.

 

Eventually, might branch out into the other countries he lived in after the war, but for now, just his birth country.

[cpm9ball]

...........as a link to my father who died recently. He was German. He was born in 1918 and died in 2005 and I want to get a bit of the history of his country as a link.

 

WWII was a hard time for everyone, globally. Your father was 23, my father was 26. Who knows, they might have faced one another on the battlefield. My Dad participated in D-Day, made his way through France and was captured during the "Battle of the Bulge" near Drusenheim, sent to Stalag VIIA at Ludwigsburg, then transferred to Stalag XIB at Fallingbostel until freed by Allied forces.

 

My condolences for your loss.

 

Chris

 

PS. My Mom has all of the newspaper clippings from the Washington, D.C. papers covering WWII. Was your father in Western Europe?

[jordanscott]

Chris,

 

Yes, my dad was in France (but then again, most everybody was), Belgium and the Netherlands before eventually being captured and held in a British POW camp for the last year or so of the war and a few yrs after the end.

[jordanscott]

now here's a question for y'all.

 

what are some good ebay search terms?

 

i've done 'german money', 'german paper money', and 'german bills' and none of them come up with more than about 1.5 pages and mostly all the same hits for each search term.

 

'german coins' comes up with a lot of great stuff to look though however, but all coins. duh!

 

Or, perhaps ebay isn't a popular venue for paper money?

 

and yes, i tried deutschmark and deutsch mark.

 

thx!

[cpm9ball]

now here's a question for y'all.

 

what are some good ebay search terms?

 

i've done 'german money', 'german paper money', and 'german bills' and none of them come up with more than about 1.5 pages and mostly all the same hits for each search term.

 

'german coins' comes up with a lot of great stuff to look though however, but all coins. duh!

 

Or, perhaps ebay isn't a popular venue for paper money?

 

and yes, i tried deutschmark and deutsch mark.

 

thx!

 

Jordan, have you tried eBay>Coins>World Paper Money>Europe; then search Europe for "German Currency".

 

Here is another.......www.joelscoins.com/germany.htm

 

Chris