GERMANY. Magnificent and original collection made up of 81 porcelain or terracotta coins and medals. Most of the collection is made up of coins from the first quarter of the 20th century, mainly 1921, of different values, although we will also find medals and pieces minted in later decades as commemorative purposes. High level of conservation in general. ESSENTIAL TO EXAMINE.

GERMAN PORCELAIN COINS

The currency of necessity throughout our contemporary history is a constant. Intimately linked to periods of economic, political or social instability, but especially in the post-war period, they fulfill an essential task for the maintenance of the battered economies of the moment. There are many examples, both in coins and bills. However, we will make our stop here in the so-called Notgelds that, although with the passage of time its use has become widespread for all types of currency and emergency banknotes, if we analyze it from a more strict point of view we would have to focus exclusively on the produced by German institutions between 1914 and 1923.

We are talking, then, of a very specific period that includes World War I and its postwar period, being the hyperinflation typical of this period the one that forces its coinage in a series of materials of little nobility, some widely used and known as aluminum or aluminum. brass but we also find others, perhaps surprising, such as porcelain. The Weimar Republic had to face numerous payments and war indemnities, and this caused the minting of huge amounts of money that, obviously, ended up being worth hardly anything.

Made of fine porcelain or brown stoneware, values ranging from 10 pfennig to 20 marks were issued and despite their popularity they were soon discontinued due to their intrinsic weakness, since they were coins that were easily damaged when not broken. The Saxon city of Meissen, internationally famous for the production of ceramics since the beginning of the 18th century, was the main one in charge of producing this type of coin for the different German municipalities that decided to mint these peculiar pieces.