Funny money

[sexobon]

I have 100,000 Mark and 500,000 Mark notes from 1923 Germany that were passed down to me. The hyperinflation was happening so quickly there wasn't a chance to revalue the currency which eventually had single notes of 1 Trillion Mark. It took a wheelbarrow full of lower denomination notes to buy a loaf of bread. The silver lining was that people never ran out of toilet paper.

[limey]

Originally Posted by sexobon

I have 100,000 Mark and 500,000 Mark notes from 1923 Germany that were passed down to me. The hyperinflation was happening so quickly there wasn't a chance to revalue the currency which eventually had single notes of 1 Trillion Mark. It took a wheelbarrow full of lower denomination notes to buy a loaf of bread. The silver lining was that people never ran out of toilet paper.

I've seen film of that wheelbarrow thing. On my last visit to Uzbekistan I saw a South African guy pay his hotel bill with local currency - at least four carrier bags full!
The pic is a stack of 1,000 sum notes. There are higher denomination notes in circulation but only the very rich get to use them!
Link to currency images here for Sarge. I've never seen the coins (not this visit, not the last, 15 months ago). I was given a 200 and a 500 note this morning (and a sweetie/candy - this is common practice when the coins have disappeared from circulation, usually because the metal is worth more than the denomination. Sweets, chewing gum, matches can all be supplied by the shop as "small change" for a transaction) as change when I bought some biscuits. I gave the notes to a beggar as I doubt the currency exchange will take them from me.
Currency exchanges, hotels and shops which handle larger transactions all have automated bill counters, and the rattle as they count out the hundreds of thousands is a characteristic sound in any hotel lobby.