Imperial Germany 1000 Marks 1910

Okay, so since its been awhile since my last posting I figured I'd give you all an extra today.  I'm switching focus temporarily to a German note  because its always good to keep things fresh and I wanted to provide some quality content for those of us who aren't interested in Russian notes (though the commentary on the 1909 series will be completed!).  Anyway, I figured a good place to start would be with this nice looking German specimen from just years before the outbreak of the First World War. 

While this note certainly doesn't have the same colorful flair of the Russian notes of the same period, it nonetheless possesses a nice vignette on the reverse (the German heraldic eagle flanked by two feminine figures) as well as an interesting security feature.  While the Russian notes that we have examined this far feature watermarks (the 25 ruble issue has Czar Alexander III in addition to small '25s', while the 10 ruble issue has small '10s'), this German note contains small bits of blue thread in an early form of a security strip near the left side of the bill (see pictures below). 

This issue comes in two major varieties, green seal and red seal.  The notes bearing the red seal were issued during the imperial era, while those bearing the green are reprints made between the years 1918 and 1922.  Among the notes bearing the red seal, a further differentiation can be made with regards to serial number length.   Notes bearing six-digit serial numbers are much less common than those bearing seven-digit numbers and command prices roughly five times greater.  The six digit serial number notes fetch prices around $50 in uncirculated condition while those with seven-digits go for about $8.  Here are the pictures:


Obverse:

  

Reverse: