Bundesbank figures: million-dollar D-Mark treasure: Bundesbank exchanges old money

“When issued, kiss withdrawal for 3 days” – the announcement on the 10 D-Mark note was clear. The banknote was signed “Your dream woman”. The threat obviously had an effect, because the banknote only ended up with the Bundesbank in 2024 – 23 years after the introduction of euro cash at the turn of the year 2001/2002. If the owner had issued the 10-mark note, it would have been classified as damaged due to the inscription during the D-mark era and sorted out.

Accidental discovery or kept for years out of nostalgia: year after year, people exchange millions of dollars in old Deutsche Mark holdings for euros at the Bundesbank. Last year it was a good 53 million deutschmarks, the equivalent of around 27.2 million euros. However, that was less than in 2023, when the sum rose to a good 58 million German marks.

According to the Bundesbank, an average of 542 D-Marks were submitted in the 98,165 exchanges in 2024. The most common: the 100 D-Mark note (121,000 pieces) and the 1-pfennig coin (12,600 pieces).

Always random finds

A family made a major find last year while redesigning their garden: Since the children were now older, a play structure had to be removed. Under the foundation, the family discovered a box containing 250 D-Mark notes, stamps and a letter from their grandmother. Unfortunately, some banknotes were so badly rusted that they could not be refunded. For the remaining 9,000 D-Marks, the family received 4,600 euros from the Bundesbank.

Almost as valuable was the charred remains of D-Mark banknotes and soot-covered coins, which for some unknown reason only ended up on the Bundesbank experts’ table 24 years after a fire in a company. After painstaking detailed work, all 2,700 coins and 240 banknotes were refunded – total value: 8,000 D-Marks.

Part of the old money irretrievably lost

However, some of the old banknotes and coins may never be exchanged – for example because they are in the hands of collectors or abroad. “The D-Mark was an internationally common currency that was also used outside of Germany. There are therefore likely to still be large amounts of D-Mark cash abroad,” explains Bundesbank board member Burkhard Balz.

Deutsche Mark holdings worth billions have not yet been returned

Even 23 years after the introduction of euro cash at the turn of the year 2001/2002, almost 163 million D-Mark notes and more than 23 billion D-Mark coins have not yet been returned. Total value: almost 12.2 billion German marks (around 6.24 billion euros). A little more than half of the amount still outstanding at the end of December is made up of coins (6.54 billion D-Marks), the rest is banknotes (5.64 billion D-Marks).

Anyone who still finds old notes or coins can submit them for exchange free of charge at all 31 Bundesbank branches or by post via the Bundesbank branch in Mainz. The exchange rate was fixed with the introduction of the euro: you get one euro for 1.95583 D-Marks.

Germany is one of six countries in the euro area where the old national currency can be exchanged for euros for an unlimited period of time. This also applies indefinitely in Austria and Ireland as well as in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Bundesbank for DM circulation ECB for exchanging national cash Bundesbank branches