Catalog & market information for bank notes issued by Régie des Chemins de Fer des Territoires Occupés

After Germany defaulted on its World War I reparation payments (see Reichsbank hyperinflation issues B221 - B309), French and Belgian armed forces occupied the industrial area of the Ruhr in January 1923, where they would remain until June 1930. The Régie des Chemins de Fer des Territoires Occupés (RCF) was established by taking over the German railways to transport coal and other minerals from German mines in the Ruhr to France and Belgium. As the German economy sank into hyperinflation-fuelled chaos, from November 1923 the RCF issued a series of banknotes denominated in French francs in order to give its French and German railway workers and miners a stable currency to make purchases. When the Dawes Plan went into effect in September 1924, the railways were returned to German control and RCF banknotes were withdrawn.