Deutsche Mark

The Deutsche Mark was the German monetary unit.

The Mark was convertible into gold ($0.2382) up to July 31, 1914 (World War 1), it remained the only legal tender in Germany until October 11, 1924.

On July 31, 1914, Germany had 4 billion gold Marks, of which 2.75 billions were in circulation and the balance were held as reserves against Reichsbank deposit liabilities and about 2 billion outstanding paper Marks, all redeemable in gold. By the end of 1918 the gold reserve was 2.5 billion Marks and the unredeemable notes outstanding 32.65 billions. By November 15, 1923, the irredeemable Reichsbank notes outstanding had reached 92,844,721,000 billion Marks. By the end of December 1923, they reached 496,507,425,000 billion Marks against which official gold reserves were the equivalent of only $111,200,000.

A decree of October 15, 1923 established the Rentenbank and provided for a transitional Rentenmark to be issued after November 15, 1923 with a value proclaimed to be the equivalent of 1,000 billion paper Marks. The volume of Reichsbank notes continued to increase for several months after the introduction of the Rentenmark, reaching 1,520,511,000,000 billion Marks by the end of September 1924. As a result of the Dawes Plan loan of 800,000,000 gold Marks, the Reichstag passed the Act of August 30, 1924 which provided for a gold Reichsmark (RM) on October 11, 1924, with one RM equal to 1,000 billion paper Marks.

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