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1 000 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Mengen (City of Mengen, Württemberg) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 138 × 97 mm |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed Notgeld note in black and ochre-gold on cream paper, enclosed within a decorative diamond-pattern border running the full perimeter, with a circular ochre-gold underprint bearing the legend "STADTGEMEINDE MENGEN" surrounding the central text field. The denomination "Eine Billion Mark" is set in large Gothic blackletter script at centre, with a small municipal coat of arms vignette integrated into the text block, while the numeral "Mk. 1.000.000.000.000" appears in the upper right and a serial prefix with manuscript number at upper left. The issuing date "Mengen, 21. Nov. 1923", the authority designation "Stadtpflege", and a manuscript signature appear at lower centre and right. |
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| Obverse lettering | Mk. 1 000 000 000 000 Eine Billion Mark zahlt die Stadtgemeinde Mengen durch die Girokasse der Oberamtssparkasse Saulgau dem Einlieferer dieses Scheins. Mengen, den 21. Nov. 1923 Stadtpflege. |
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| Comments |
Mengen is a small town in Upper Swabia — population a few thousand in the 1920s — which makes a locally issued one-trillion-mark note one of the more surreal artifacts of the German hyperinflation. By late 1923, municipal and district authorities across Germany were printing their own emergency currency because the Reichsbank simply could not produce denominations large enough fast enough. These Notgeld issues often had validity periods of days, sometimes hours, before the figures became economically useless.
The Stadtgemeinde Mengen's trillion-mark note was not an act of ambition. It was administrative necessity at the outer edge of a collapsing monetary system — issued just weeks before the Rentenmark stabilization of November 1923 rendered every one of these instruments worthless.