Forged German Treasure Banknotes

Chapter II

This page started April 25, 2009

Last update: May 2, 2009

It came as a real surprise to all of us collectors and dealers who have been following eBay seller "Farbod*" during the past year or so selling forged banknotes.  Recalling my only phone call with him over a year ago, he said: "No one can do nothing!"  direct translation from Persian.  "One of the top management in eBay is my relative and I can do anything".

It turned out that Texas Court,  DFW Detectives, USPS Fraud Department, and hundreds of collectors who have written and complained were unable to keep him out of eBay for more than two weeks and, with the blessings from eBay, he is back with more forged banknotes.

To be fair to the seller I should add that now he has the following sentence in the description of the forged banknotes he is offering on eBay, " To be save side i will sale this German note as a fake Banknote."   At least he is declaring openly that these German banknotes are fake !   I wonder if eBay will permit any dealer to sell forged US or British banknotes !

Once again we will start tracking the serial numbers and eBay lot numbers for these forgeries as reference to collectors and dealers.

Click on the image to enlarge

For your information:

The "Niedermayer" notes, or better known as "German WWI notes overprinted for use in Iran", come in five denominations:

12.5 Kran     (overprint on 5 Mark)

   25 Kran     (overprint on 10 Mark)

     5 Toman   (overprint on 20 Mark)

   25 Toman   (overprint on 100 Mark)

 250 Toman   (overprint on 1000 Mark)

The most common of these five German overprinted notes is the 5 Toman.  A genuine note in F-VF condition should fetch $300-$600.  The same note in AU-UNC could bring close to $1000.00 if not more.

Next come the 12.5 and 25 Kran (the two low denominations), these two are far more scarce and a price of $1500 for an UNC will not be surprising.

The 25 and 250 tomans (the two highest denominations) have all been redeemed, according to the archives of the German Bank and documentation published in IBNS Journal.  Only one of each with Zero Serial number (Specimen) are available in German War Museum.  If you like to receive a link to pdf format file of "Niedermayer" notes article published in IBNS 1988 Volume 27 Journal, send me an e-mail.  Thanks.

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The regular German WWI banknotes (without overprint) are available at the market for $1.00 - $2.00 each.  The same banknotes with genuine overprints fetch several hundred dollars.  It is not surprising that one will be tempted to rubber stamp a $1.00 banknote and resell it to innocent collectors at several hundred dollars.  Evidently according to eBay this is NOT Fraud !