´óÏó´«Ã½

An envelope which contained a short letter to a my grandfather (a Leicester accountant) from Germany posted on 11th August 1923. The 112 stamps which cover the front and back of the envelope have a face value of 51,600 Marks which had an approximate value in Sterling on the day of one old Penny (1/2p). The value pre first world war would have been about £2580! Hyperinflation in Germany was at its worst during the period 1921 to November 1923. The hyperinflation episode in the Weimar Republic at this time was not the first hyperinflation, nor was it the only one in early 1920s Europe or even the most extreme inflation beforeor since,(the Hungarian peng? and Zimbabwean dollar have both been more inflated). However, as the most prominent case following the emergence of economics as a science, it drew interest in a way that previous instances had not. Many of the dramatic and unusual economic behaviors now associated with hyperinflation were first documented systematically in Germany: order-of-magnitude increases in prices and interest rates, redenomination of the currency, consumer flight from cash to hard assets, and the rapid expansion of industries that produced those assets.