Originally Posted by Danny
It now fitted perfectly, but to my surprise they handed over the tiny scrap of removed gold, carefully wrapped in tissue paper.
"Vielen Dank", I said, "but this is no use to me - it may be to you - keep it". They were genuinely horrified. "One day", they said, "this may be the price of a meal for you - you must take it." We keep it still.
My mother and grandmother (though she is long dead) lived in Germany until 1946. Having indeed used cigarettes as currency:
Originally Posted by Danny
In this way German civilians couldn't clear the NAAFI of our duty-free cigarettes, then make huge future profits (by stacking up with small valuable goods like Zeiss binoculars and Leica cameras for future resale), as cigarettes were then the sole currency in a ruined Germany (the Reichmark being almost valueless).
they too would have understood the value of your gold. I think it probably takes a long time to get over the 'joys' of living in a barter economy where gold and cigarettes are almost your only currency.