Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It, likewise, may be assumed that if suit had been brought in Germany, a judgment at any time for the number of marks called for by the obligation would have satisfied the requirements of German law, since there marks were not only the things to be delivered but the lawful money with which to satisfy a breach of an obligation to deliver them. But if suit be brought in a court of this country, where marks are not money but things only, the judgment must be in dollars and cannot be in marks any more than it could be in wheat if the broken contract related to that commodity. ”

“ An obligation in terms of the currency of a country takes the risk of currency fluctuations and whether creditor or debtor profits by the change the law takes no account of it. Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wall. 457, 548, 549, 20 L. Ed. 287. Obviously in fact a dollar or a mark may have different values at different times but to the law that establishes it it is always the same. If the debt had been due here and the value of dollars had dropped before suit was brought the plaintiff could recover no more dollars on that account. A foreign debtor should be no worse off. ”

“ In the case of marks, however, the element of time is of no consequence since, in Germany, the value of a mark can be measured only by itself.
But in an action brought here to recover upon a failure to deliver marks in Germany, the question of time becomes material; for here a mark is not money, but a commodity; and, if plaintiff is to be compensated in dollars for his loss, we must inquire, When did the loss occur? just as we must make that inquiry in order to fix in dollars the value of wheat in a suit to recover for the nondelivery of that commodity. ”