Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Mark Forum-Scheck
| Issuer | Forum Außenhandelsgesellschaft m.b.H. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1979 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Mark (1 DDM) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Cream and pink note with fine guilloche underprint. A broad horizontal brown band carries the non-transferability notice in white text; the right panel shows the Forum monogram in pink and brown with the year 1979 below. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Guilloche underprint |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Forum Außenhandelsgesellschaft m.b.H. was the East German state's hard-currency retail operation — a mechanism for extracting Western money from tourists, diplomats, and East Germans receiving remittances from relatives abroad. These Forum-Schecks functioned as internal convertible currency, accepted at Intershop outlets for Western goods unavailable through normal retail channels. The arrangement was ideologically awkward: a self-described socialist state effectively running a parallel economy where access to consumer goods depended on foreign exchange.
The 1979 series replaced earlier coupons as the GDR tightened control over hard-currency flows. A print run exceeding twelve million for this denomination alone reflects genuine volume demand — these were used, not collected.