GERMANY 100 mark 24.6.1935 (1945)

Description

In the early days of the Third Reich the economy continued to be run in the peacemeal way it had been during the later Weimar Republic. There were silver coins and paper money, and they didn’t always exchange at par.

Aside from China, other governments started using circulating “banknotes” starting in the 17th century AD. The practice became general in the 19th century. In the 20th century value of paper money in circulation far surpassed the value of coinage. In the 21st century paper money is fading and credit transactions are growing.

Paper money, meaning the promise of a government to pay a set amount, and the paper promise allowed to circulate at will, was probably first used in China in the 12th century AD. At that time the merchants and governments of Europe were just writing letters to each other about what they owed.