Coin of the Month - October 2012
80 billion marks
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(Click on image for full size.)
These two medals testify to the devastating effects of the hyperinflation in Germany in 1923. It is often cited as a trauma which still influences German attitudes to euro area policy. The price of one pound of bread increased from 3850 marks in July to 80 billion marks in November, an event considered sufficiently dramatic to be recorded at the time through medals expressing the suffering of the German people.
Luca Einaudi, Centre for History and Economics