Germany P-R139 20 Reichsmark 1940 F (Fine)—Swastika—Nazi—World War II—Brandenburg G.

One of the most historically charged banknotes of the 20th century — the Reichskreditkassenschein was not ordinary German currency. It was a purpose-built occupation instrument, printed to extract economic value from conquered territories across Europe during World War II, and declared legal tender alongside local currencies in every country the Wehrmacht occupied.

Front

• Colors: olive-green dominant engraving; pale multicolor underprint
• Main motif: Portrait derived from Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait, rendered as "The Builder" — a laborer figure used to give the note a Germanic cultural identity
• Inscriptions: Zwanzig Reichsmark (Twenty Reichsmarks); Ausgegeben auf Grund der Verordnung über Reichskreditkassen (Issued on the basis of the Ordinance regulating Reichs Credit Banks); Hauptverwaltung der Reichskreditkassen (Main Administration of the Reichs Credit Bank)

Back

• Colors: blue-green dominant; multicolor underprint
• Main motif: Brandenburg Gate, Berlin — the iconic neoclassical monument and symbol of German power
• Inscriptions: Zwanzig Reichsmark; Geldfälschung wird mit Zuchthaus bestraft (Counterfeiting is punishable with prison)

Other Characteristics

• Varieties: P-R139 ND(1940–1945) — this note; P-R135 through P-R138 and P-R140 (other denominations in the same series)
• Catalog numbers: P-R139; Numista N#206500
• Watermark: Watermarked paper (pattern varies)
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 158 × 80 mm
• Issuing entity: Reichskreditkassen (Reich Credit Banks)
• Demonetized: Yes — 23 June 1948
• Currency: Reichsmark (RM) (1924–1948)
• Official language: German

About Germany (Third Reich Era)

• Origin of name: From the Latin Germania, used by Roman writers to describe the tribes east of the Rhine; the Germanic root ger may mean "spear" or relate to a tribal name
• Capital: Berlin (city pop. ~4.3 million in 1940; today ~3.7 million city / ~6 million metro)
  • Origin of name: Possibly from the Old Slavic berl- meaning "swamp" or from a West Slavic root; the bear in Berlin's coat of arms is a folk-etymological association
• Population (1940): ~70 million within Reich borders — comparable to present-day France or the United Kingdom
• Area (1940): ~633,000 km² (244,000 mi²) at peak territorial extent — comparable to Texas and California combined
• GDP per capita (PPP): Among the largest industrial economies in the world in 1940, despite wartime distortions
• Main industries: Steel, armaments, chemicals, coal, machinery — the industrial backbone of the war effort
• Borders (1940): Occupied France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia (annexed), Austria (annexed), Switzerland, and others
• Official/spoken language: German
• Ethnicities: Predominantly German; significant Jewish, Romani, and other minority populations subjected to persecution
• Memberships: Axis Powers (1936–1945, with Italy and Japan); Anti-Comintern Pact (1936);
• Sovereignty:
  • Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) — loose confederation of German-speaking states
  • German Confederation (1815–1866)
  • German Empire (1871–1918) — unified under Prussian leadership; defeated in WWI
  • Weimar Republic (1919–1933) — democratic republic; plagued by hyperinflation, political instability, and the Great Depression
  • Third Reich (1933–1945) — Adolf Hitler's totalitarian dictatorship; responsible for WWII and the Holocaust; this note issued during this period
  • Allied Occupation & division (1945–1949)
  • Federal Republic of Germany / German Democratic Republic (1949–1990)
  • Reunified Germany (1990–date)

What Is a Reichskreditkassenschein?

The Reichskreditkassenschein (Reich Credit Bank note) was not the standard Reichsmark used inside Germany. It was a parallel occupation currency — created specifically to be spent in conquered territories. When German soldiers and administrators arrived in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece, or the Soviet Union, they paid for goods and services with these notes. Local populations were legally required to accept them at fixed, artificially favorable exchange rates. The result was a systematic transfer of real goods — food, raw materials, labor — to Germany, in exchange for paper backed by nothing but military force. P-R135 through P-R140 circulated as legal tender in every occupied country and territory throughout the war.

Dürer's Builder on the Obverse

The portrait on the front is adapted from the work of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), the Renaissance master whose self-portraits are among the most recognized images in Western art history. The Third Reich appropriated Dürer's image extensively as a symbol of Germanic cultural greatness — placing a Dürer-derived figure on occupation currency was a deliberate act of cultural branding, projecting German civilization onto the territories being economically stripped. The irony is sharp: one of history's greatest artists, pressed into service on an instrument of wartime extraction.

The Brandenburg Gate

Built in 1791 as a symbol of Prussian power and later adopted as the defining icon of Berlin itself, the Brandenburg Gate appears on the reverse as an unmistakable statement of German authority. By the time these notes were circulating across occupied Europe, the Gate had become inseparable from the Nazi regime's imagery. Today it stands as a symbol of reunification and peace — a remarkable transformation for a monument that once appeared on occupation scrip.

Own a direct artifact of WWII's economic machinery — a Reichskreditkassenschein that crossed borders, changed hands in occupied Europe, and survived to tell the story, in solid Very Fine condition.