10 Mark 40 Years of the RGW

The RGW — Rat für gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe, known in the West as Comecon — was founded in Moscow in January 1949 at Stalin's behest, partly as a counter to the Marshall Plan. By the time East Germany issued this coin marking its fortieth anniversary, the organization was already functionally moribund. The Soviet bloc economies it was meant to integrate had spent decades trading in non-convertible currencies under bilateral barter arrangements that frustrated genuine coordination.

The timing is quietly ironic. This coin entered circulation in 1989. Comecon itself was dissolved in 1991.