Found an old 5 Deutsche Mark note — is it worth keeping?

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1pxckpy

Posted by Suryansh-777

20 Comments

  1. It’s not worth much if that’s what you mean. But it’s a nice banknote and I remember having a crush on Bettina von Arnim as a kid. They were rather rare, 5DM coins were way more common.

  2. Well, it is basically useless. They are not legal tender anymore and it’s worth only about 2,50, when you trade them at a Bundesbank location. And there are too many still around to have collectors value. Still, throwing it away would be a waste. I recommend to use it as a bookmark in a German literature book.

    Edit: I confused it with GDR-Marks that can’t be exchanged anymore. Sorry.

  3. DerBusundBahnBi on

    Are they even still legal tender at exchange rate? I know that in Australia for instance, old £sd (I.e. pre 1966) notes are still legal tender, and thus can be used at 10 Shillings to a dollar, 6d to 5c, etc, and similarly, in Britain, old coins (I.e. pre 1971) from pre decimalisation are still legal tender, but I‘m not sure about any Eurozone pre Euro currencies. ~~Regardless, could that have more value as a collector’s item?~~ Fun fact: No

  4. Any piece of history is worth preserving. If you don’t wanna do that, give it to someone else. I’m sure that many have these, but when it comes to such relics, they tend to get fewer and fewer as time passes by. Make sure to keep the face preserved, with those deep eyes and subtle smile. I’m sure that whoever drew it tilted like that would have a nice story to tell. But for now, it’s just a reminder of a bygone era. What were they thinking when they drew it? What were they seeing around them? What did this bill mean to them? And what did they eventually purchase with it?

  5. Honestly I’d keep it.

    Always had a soft spot for the 5 DM notes because I seemed to only ever get handed the coins

  6. Maybe. The 5 Mark note was substituted through a 5 Mark coin. In the end Euro came…
    Anyway it might be for collectors to have some value.

  7. I hate to think what it would cost to get it to me, lol. I collect oddball foreign currency, but being in the US finding stuff like this is hard lol.

  8. You can still exchange it for Euros if you want, its not worth keeping, at least from a monetary viewpoint.

  9. Yes. I was born in the 90’s in Germany, and i never saw one of those. They were rare, partially because we had a 5DM coin too and that was far more spread. I don’t know if it is worth anything above its nominal value though at the moment.