Germany P-97b 20000000 marks 20 million marks 1923 Very Fine—Long—Blank Back

Banknote Characteristics

• Varieties:
  • P-97a — 7-digit serial number, Government issue, prefix W–Z ⬅️ not this note
  • P-97b — 6 or 8-digit serial number, Private issue (prefixes AB AE AF AG D H J K N P R T V) ⬅️ this note. You will receive prefix H, J, N, or P.
• Color: Brown and tan on white paper
• Front: Text-only design — "Reichsbanknote / Zwanzig Millionen Mark (Twenty Million Marks) / 20 MILLIONEN" in bold serif typography
• Back: Blank
• Watermark: Oak leaves on a vertical thread
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 193 × 82 mm (7.60 × 3.23 in)
  • 1871 (German Empire founded): 540,857 km² (208,826 mi²) — similar to Texas + Oklahoma (USA); similar to France (Europe)
  • 1919 (post-Versailles): 468,787 km² (180,998 mi²) — similar to California + Oregon (USA); similar to Spain (Europe)
  • 1942 (Pre-WW1 Germany, Austria, Sudetenland, Luxembourg, northern Slovenia, Łódź area): ~857,000 km² (~330,100 mi²) almost Texas + Florida combined (USA) or France + Switzerland + Belgium combined
  • Today: 357,114 km² (137,882 mi²) — similar to Montana (USA); similar to Poland (Europe)
• Issuing entity: Reichsbank
• Printer: Reichsdruckerei, Berlin
• Demonetized: Yes
• Signatures: Reichsbank officials (varies by variety)
• Currency: German Papiermark (1873–1923)

Country: Germany

• Etymology: From the Latin Germania, used by Roman writers to describe the tribes east of the Rhine
• Sovereignty: Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
• Capital: Berlin (city pop ~3.7 million, AfSBB 2023; metro pop ~6.1 million)
• Population: ~84.5 million (UN 2024) — between France (~68M) and Vietnam (~98M); similar to Texas + California combined (USA)
• Area: 357,114 km² (137,882 mi²)
  • 1871 (German Empire founded): 540,857 km² (208,826 mi²) — similar to Texas + Oklahoma (USA); similar to France (Europe)
  • 1919 (post-Versailles): 468,787 km² (180,998 mi²) — similar to California + Oregon (USA); similar to Spain (Europe)
  • 1942 (Greater German Reich incl. pre-WW! territory plus Austria, Sudetenland, Luxembourg, upper Slovenia, Lódź/Białystok/etc.): ~857,000 km² (~330,100 mi²) almost Texas + Florida combined (USA) or France + Switzerland + Belgium combined
  • Today: 357,114 km² (137,882 mi²) — similar to Montana (USA) or Poland
• GDP per capita at PPP: ~$67,900 USD (IMF 2024) — ranks ~17th out of 193 globally
• Main exports: Motor vehicles, machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics
• Borders: Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands
• Languages: German (official, national); regional/state-recognized: Danish, Low German, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, North Frisian, Saterland Frisian, Romani; major minority languages: Turkish (~1.5M), Arabic (~1.0M), Kurdish (~800k), Russian (~700k)

Germany Unfiltered

In 1923, a loaf of bread cost 200 billion marks. A wheelbarrow of cash could not buy a newspaper. Workers were paid twice a day so they could spend their wages before they lost value by afternoon.

Germany invented the kindergarten, the aspirin, and the MP3. It also invented the concentration camp — in German South-West Africa, decades before the Holocaust.

More Nobel Prizes in science have been awarded to Germans than to any other nationality. The country was producing world-class physics while its currency was being used as wallpaper.

The Weimar Republic lasted fourteen years. It produced some of the most radical art, architecture, and cinema of the twentieth century. It ended when a failed Austrian painter won an election.

At its 1942 peak, Greater Berlin had a population of ~4.3 million — making it one of the largest cities on earth. By 1945, roughly a third of its buildings were rubble.

Germany reunified in 1990 — forty-five years after being divided by the countries that defeated it. The wall that divided Berlin fell not by force but because a government spokesman misread a press release live on television.

The Number That Broke Arithmetic

Twenty million marks. In July 1923, that was a meaningful sum — enough to buy a house, perhaps, or a small business. By November 1923, it would not buy a single egg. The hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic was not a slow erosion. It was a collapse so total and so fast that the government could not print money quickly enough to keep up with its own worthlessness. Notes were overprinted. New denominations were issued weekly. This note — twenty million marks — was itself obsolete within weeks of printing.

What Caused It

The roots go back to World War I, which Germany financed almost entirely through debt, expecting to win and collect reparations. It lost. The Treaty of Versailles imposed reparations of 132 billion gold marks. When Germany defaulted in 1922, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr — Germany's industrial heartland. The German government responded by printing money to pay striking workers. The printing press became the policy. The mark became confetti.

The Reichsbank in the Eye of the Storm

The Reichsbank issued this note. It was the central bank of the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, and in 1923 it was printing money around the clock. Paper mills ran out of paper. Ink suppliers could not keep up. At the peak of the crisis, the Reichsbank was issuing notes in denominations of 100 trillion marks. This note — twenty million — was a rounding error by then. The crisis ended only when the Rentenmark was introduced in November 1923, backed by a mortgage on Germany's agricultural and industrial land. One Rentenmark was exchanged for one trillion Papiermarks. The old currency was simply abolished.

Own This Artifact of the Collapse

This is not just a banknote. It is a document of one of the most dramatic economic catastrophes in modern history — the event that destroyed the savings of an entire middle class, radicalized a generation, and created the political conditions for what came next. In Very Fine Plus condition, it retains strong detail and honest wear consistent with genuine circulation. It was held, spent, and rendered worthless — all within a matter of weeks.

The Weimar hyperinflation is studied in every economics faculty in the world. This is a piece of it you can hold.