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1 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Lörrach (City of Lörrach, Baden) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 000 000 000 Marks (1 000 000 000) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted and shows the blank cream paper surface, through which the obverse letterpress impression is clearly visible in mirror image, confirming the single-sided printing technique characteristic of many German Notgeld emergency issues of the hyperinflationary period of 1923. |
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| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Circular red ink municipal seal of Stadtgemeinde Lörrach, bearing the city coat of arms, applied at lower centre of the obverse. |
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| Comments |
Lörrach's billion-Mark note dates to the autumn of 1923, when German municipal authorities were legally empowered — and practically obligated — to print their own emergency currency as Reichsbank supply failed to keep pace with hyperinflation. The Wiesentaler Handelsdruckerei was a local commercial printer, not a specialist banknote house; the official stamp functioned as the primary security feature precisely because there was no time or infrastructure for anything more sophisticated.
At the rate inflation was moving in October 1923, a one-billion-Mark denomination had a useful life measured in days before it, too, became inadequate for ordinary transactions.