Money in Crisis

Neil MacGregor examines the emergency money - Notgeld - created during World War One and its aftermath. Small denomination coins began to disappear because their metal was worth more than their face value. People hoarded them or melted them down. Paper notes replaced coins, but as cities produced their own money, there was also currency made from porcelain, linen, silk, leather, wood, coal, cotton and playing cards. He also focuses on the crisis of hyperinflation in the early 1920s. At its peak, prices doubled every three and a half days, and in 1923 a 500 million mark note might buy a loaf of bread. Producer Paul Kobrak.

You can listen to Money in Crisis online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Money in Crisis is an episode from Germany: Memories of a Nation by BBC.

This episode is 13:59 long.

This episode was published on Oct 29, 2014.

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