Soldbuch with 1 x 20,000,000,000Mark and 6 x 100Mark notes inside

[Vert]

Hello there.

First time poster here Emptying out my loft last night in preparation for moving house and I have come accross a Soldbuch with 1 x 20,000,000,000Mark note and 6 x 100 Mark notes in the back!

But...

The Soldbuch is blank. Having done my research over the past day, it seems empty = fake But I would really really like an expert eye to take a look and confirm whether its fake or not. To my untrained eye and fingers, it has the feel and smell of old, just like the notes, if that makes sense? The staples are very rusty etc.

Anyway, a few pics. Sorry they're not brilliant.

Any advice on who and where I could take these items to? I'm based in Berkshire in the UK.

Please don't just write this off as fakery!

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Don't worry, it is original.

Cheers, Ade.

[Vert]

Hi Ade,

Thanks for the welcome! Is it common to come across a blank Soldbuch? Can you tell me anymore? Any useful resources I can read up on? My very limited research into Soldbuch's says that they were identity documents issues to German Soldiers - specifically this one was issues to "Waffen-SS SS-Pioneer engineer". if a Soldier was found to not be in posession of his Soldbuch, it was an offence that carried a maximum penalty of being shot. Does this mean that the issue of these docs was very tightly controlled, such as our UK passports?

Any thoughts on the notes? Where do i begin to understand more about this?

Hope you don't mind all the lame questions

Cheers, Darren

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Darren, blank Soldbuchs do come up for sale now and again, they are not rare.

Your's is a standard Army (Heer in German) issue. Sometimes issued to members of the Waffen SS if the regulation SS version was not available. (Not quite sure where you got the SS bit from in your post? So forget that bit). It was the standard personal ID book. Not highly controled like a passport but it was a very important miitary document. Have a read on the forum about the Soldbuch as there is a fair bit of info here.

The notes again are not rare. Often known as "Inflation Money" .

Cheers, Ade.

[hucks216]

Soldbuch - Documents of the Wehrmacht

[Vert]

Hi Adrian,

Thanks for coming back to me Foolishly, I got the SS bit from this link: Snyder's Treasures -- Signed Documents - 3 item down. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to explain what I have. I was really hoping it wasn't a fake, not becuase of a monetary value (unless of course it was worth £100,000, different story maybe!) but because thats the end of the journey into where these came from and how they ended up in a loft in Berkshire.

Would you be prepared to speculate why somebody would have a blank Soldbuch? I'm intrigued. I'm a little dissappointed that it desn't contain details of anyone as I would have enjoyed persuing that person, but hay-ho, I'm very proud to have a piece of history in my possesion.

Hucks - thanks for the link, I'll spend some time reading up

[Franz1944]

It blank because not issued

[hucks216]

There are actually collectors who collect blank soldbuch examples, usually just to have a blank example of each version in their collections.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Darren, your Soldbuch and banknotes were most likely "liberated" by a British soldier. They were popular souvenirs due to the eagle on the front. But very few British squaddies could have read them or perhaps fully understood what they were. (By rights, filled in ones taken from the dead or prisoners should have been handed in for examination by Army Intel. I can relate a story of a hoard of 48 of them which I got to examine. The lady's late Father was an Intel Officer and he brought a shoe box full home with him. Sadly I could not get to buy them. The best ones were all really well worn.)

The Banknote were of course old and out of date when they were brought home to the UK. I guess people in Germany kept them as souvenirs of the bad times. When Allied Soldiers found them they were popular due to very high denominations of the note. I have a few in my collection.

Ignore ANYTHING you read on that website. It is notorious!

Cheers, Ade.