Conversion Office for German Foreign Debts - 1936 dated $100 Uncanceled Bond - Very Popular (Uncanceled)

$100 Uncanceled 3% Dollar Bond printed by Reichsdruckerei-Berlin. Coupons remain.

Back in 1933, the German Reichsbank set up the Conversion Office for German Foreign Debts (Konversionskasse für Deutsche Auslandsschulden) to handle foreign debt payments during the Nazi era. This office was tightly controlled by the government. By the mid-1930s, Germany was struggling with a big shortage of foreign currency and had to stop making direct payments on many foreign debts. So, the Conversion Office was created to change payments from German debtors in Reichsmarks into foreign currencies for creditors, even though these terms were often quite unfavorable.

The $100 uncanceled dollar bond from 1936 shows how this system evolved. Instead of paying back hard cash, the Nazi government offered foreign investors 3% interest bonds in exchange for coupons and maturing debt. These specific 1936 bonds were often made in the United States and featured the Nazi-era Eagle and Swastika. Their goal was to take care of the American loans that Germany had and lighten the Third Reich’s debt. Sometimes, the money from these deals helped fund the growing Nazi military buildup.

But because things were so unstable politically, these bonds weren’t paid back. So, German law declared them invalid in 1958, after the 1953 London Agreement on German External Debts.