CHANGING £5

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11650, 15 October 1923, Page 11

CHANGING £5

THE WAY IN GERMANY A TRAVELLER'S STORY. Tixe interesting process .by which an .English bank note is converted into 1 German currency is described in a I London paper by a traveller in Germany. I “At eight o’clock in the morning,'’ !he says, “I received by post a draft from my English bankers for the sum of live pounds in marks at the then rate of exchange. | “With some knowledge of existing I conditions, I left for the Deutsche Hank, at which the draft was payable, just after eleven. At the cheque advice department of the great house in the strasse I learned that notification j bad been leoeived from, my bankers, end waited while an order on the cashier was prepared. My passport was required for purposes of identification. “I waited, watching the dock with fresh interest, because the banks close }at one, and it was now half-past twelve. Ten minutes later the cheque had been made out and signed by two directors, but the clerk was in no hurry. My passport interested him; he studded tho record of mv wanderings, and only when he had followed me through Europe did he condescend to hand over book and cheque. “I drove hurriedly to the Reichsbank, and the bank was reached with a few minutes in hand. Alas, the main building was not the right one; cheques are certified at another branch in a side street. This was reached on the stroke of one, and all chances of progress would have ended but for the intervention of a friend, who went to the office of the director of the department. MONEY IN MUSIC CASES.

“Thanks to his good services, a number was given me just as the issue of numbers was stopped for the day, and we were told that in all probability that number would be reached in an hour and a half, though tho director said frankly that he was not sure that they , had the money to meet it. The Reichsbank is the State hank of Germany; the .amo*mt of the cheque £5 lyss five shillings! “My friend and I went to a teashop in tho neighbourhood, and lunched frugally on coffee and cakes, wondering the while whether the cheque would be met, for there was an hotel bill to settle and a train to catch on the morrow.

“At about 2.15 we returned to the cashier's office. The crowd had thinned. As each number was called the applicant stepped to the counter and received tho amount of his cheque. Most of the money was paid in packets of 20,000 mark notes, put up in piles of 20 millions—ten packets with 100 notes in each

“Every man, woman, and child—quite young children carried large sums away—-was equipped with a leather portfolio like a music case. Some of these were carried away bulging. On the other hand some of the cheques were paid in five million mark notes, the largest value in calculation at the time of writing. “Behind the tired, patient cashiers, who never faltered at their job, there were little hand trollys with wireguards, packed with marks in 20 million blocks. i

“When at laet my number was called *l, received one of these cumbrous packets, and the .balance in notes of higher value. “Briefly put, the cost of changing five pounds was three hours and a half of waiting and two cab fares, amounting to something round about 360,000 marks, or one-third of the total sum that the Deutsche Bank could offer to honour tho draft upon it.”