10 Rentenmark Rentenbank

The Deutsche Rentenbank was created by emergency decree on 15 October 1923, at the absolute nadir of the Weimar hyperinflation. The Rentenmark it issued was backed not by gold — Germany had none to speak of — but by a mortgage lien on all agricultural and industrial land in the Reich, a legally novel and arguably fictitious guarantee that nonetheless worked precisely because the public chose to believe it.

Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht limited issuance strictly to 3.2 billion Rentenmarks total. That discipline, more than any backing asset, killed the hyperinflation almost overnight. By late November 1923, the exchange rate had stabilized at one Rentenmark to one trillion old Papiermarks.

Printed in Berlin by the Reichsdruckerei, which had spent the preceding two years running presses around the clock for the worthless predecessor currency.