Germany’s inflation crisis of 1923 ended instantaneously at midnight between November 30 and December 1 1923. The last inflationary period for postage was November 26-30 inclusive. It was characterized by a unique feature—stamps used for postage actually represented payment of four times the face value. Thus the sender of the postcard below paid the correct inland postcard rate of 40 billion marks at the post office instead of the 10 billion shown on the stamp.
What makes this card interesting (if it is interesting at all—to some it will be ho-hum) is that it was mailed on November 30, but not postmarked until December 1st. It jumped across the exact divide between chaos and stability of the German mark. The fact that the card was postmarked between one and two a.m. on the 1st indicates that the item was actually sent on the 30th, since it had to have been paid for at a post office, all of which were long closed by 1 a.m. on the 1st.
Starting December 1st, 10 billion inflationary marks became exchangeable for one Rentenpfennig, a hundred of which equaled 1 Rentenmark, which was based on a fixed exchange rate with gold.
Germans were allowed to use the old currency and postage stamps throughout December 1923, at the exchange rate mentioned above. Starting January 1 1924 this became illegal, although many examples exist of infla stamps being used in 1924.
peetah...
I found some web pages for the Venezuelan Postal Service, but none of them had any prices! Here is a link to their express mail page. So I guess if you want to mail something you have to show up at the P.O. and take your chances as to how much it will cost.
Lonely Planet says 80% of mail sent in Venezeula never gets to the addressee. They advise using international carriers like DHL, even in-country.
The Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof is alive and well, see below. I am amazed it wasn't leveled during World War II.
