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of Marks. This was due to the way the German government paid off the debts incurred by the Treaty of Versailles, which required Germany to pay over 100 billion Marks to the victors of World War I. The Germans began printing notes to give to the Allies, but this had an unintended side effect of a period of hyperinflation - as the value of the Mark was diminished due to the sheer number of Mark notes in the economy, prices of bare necessities skyrocketed. To combat the hyperinflation, the Rentenmark ('security' Mark) was introduced in 1923 at a ratio of 1:1 trillion. This was only a transition currency however, and although the introduction of the Rentenmark effectively ended the days of hyperinflation, the Reichsmark replaced it as currency at the end of August 1924 at a ratio of 1:1. This replacement was caused by a change in backing. The Rentenmark was backed by the Deutsche Rentenbank, which owned a number of industrial assets, whilst the Reichsmark was backed by the newly-acquired gold assets of the German government. Although the Reichsmark superseded the Rentenmark, the latter was still used in parallel with the former until 1948.

After World War II Germany was split up into West Germany (backed by the Allies) and East Germany (backed by the Soviet Union), and two currencies were created for the new nations, the Deutsche Mark for the West and the East German mark for the East. The two new currencies operated on par with one another, although they were not easily converted. It was illegal to export East German marks outside of East Germany, and the actual exchange rate varied between 5 and 10 marks to one Deutsche Mark. During the German reunification in 1990, East Germany adopted the Deutsche Mark as legal tender and its use continued until the introduction of the euro in 2002. The Mark-euro exchange rate became fixed at 1.95583:1. Whilst one side of the euro coins are standardised throughout the 'eurozone' (the area in which the euro is officially used), the national authorities are free to choose their own designs for the other sides, and Germany has chosen the German eagle for the one and two euro coins, the Brandenburg Gate for the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins whilst a German oak twig features on the one, two and five cent coins (a design which featured on the pfennig coins of the Mark).

Like Germany, the currency of that country has remained turbulent over the years, from the Thaler days of the Holy Roman Empire, to the Marks of the 20th century and the euro of the 21st. However, the future looks bright for this industrial nation, with a strong economy and a strong culture that shows no signs of slowing.

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