Details
This is a live on-site conference auction. Online bidding is not available here.
- Forty “1 Milliarde” postage stamps cover the envelope, making the total postal fare 40 billion marks.
- The stamps were cancelled with a large rolling tool, as envelopes carrying dozens of stamps could not be cancelled one at a time with a handstamp.
- The stamps were not overprinted. As postage rates outran available stamps, the Reichspost issued constant surcharges and overprints, with values climbing into the millions and billions of marks.
- When stocks ran out, the postal service improvised with provisional overprints or handstamps; where stamps were unavailable, letters were marked “Gebühr bezahlt” (fee paid).
- Assuming 40 Milliarden, the envelope dates to the terminal stage of Weimar hyperinflation, the last third of November 1923.
- The artifact connects with Michael Saylor’s melting ice cube quote: “I realised I’m on a melting ice cube of $500 million worth of money; the purchasing power is dwindling at 10% to 20% a year; I have to do something.”
- The quote is typed on an old German-made typewriter as a reminder and illustration from 100 years ago.
- Minimum bid: 0 sats.
Artist
Weimar Artifacts
Historical monetary artifacts
Historical artifact curator connecting Weimar hyperinflation, monetary debasement and Bitcoin education.
