ALLIED MILITARY CURRENCY, 1 (EINE) MARK 1944 FOR USE IN OCCUPIED GERMANY

This is an original 1 mark (Eine) Allied bank note.  You will receive one note, unfortunately you will not be able to pick which one.

This Allied Military Currenty was issued in Allied occupied Germany by the AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories, printted in 1944 after the commencement of Operation Wild Dog.

Denominations were as follows:  The ½ mark, 1 mark, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000 Marks.

Occupation forces need money they could spend in the local economies, to buy goods and hire laborers.

The U.S. did not want to use dollars overseas, for several reasons. In Europe, the goal was to have Germany bear the costs of the occupation. If the Germans didn’t have access to any dollars, that made it easier to ensure they were paying occupation costs out of their own funds and national currencies.  They also did not want the money to end up in the hands of the Nazi sympathizers to be used for espionage or sabotage of operations.

The Americans therefore wanted an occupation currency that could be used only within the occupied countries.

The Americans, who were already planning to produce occupation currency in every theater of the war, took the lead and offered to print all the AMM that U.S., British, and Russian forces would need in occupied Germany. The British agreed, but the Soviets balked.  The Soviets wanted their own set of printing plates.

The Americans and British opposed having two different sets of AMM circulating through postwar Germany but in the end agreed that the Soviets could also print the money.

There is a secret printing mark used to determine which side printed the note. For the Americans this is a stylized "F" for the printer, Forbes Lithographic, which appears on the 1/2, 1, 5 and 10 mark notes in the left ball of the scroll directly below the lower right denomination value. The letter also appears on the 20, 50, 100 and 1000 marks. The Soviet Union printed identical notes but without the "F".