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1 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Köln (City of Cologne) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Printer | Kölner Verlags-Anstalt und Druckerei A.G., Cologne, Germany |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain tan and brown reverse with a single scalloped guilloche cartouche centred on the note. Within the cartouche, "Eine Milliarde Mark" is rendered in bold blackletter script above "Mark", with "STADT KÖLN" at the top. The printer's imprint "Bachem. Köln" appears in small type at the lower right margin. |
| Reverse lettering | STADT KÖLN Eine Milliarde Mark Bachem. Köln |
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| Comments |
Cologne's municipal administration issued this one billion mark note during the hyperinflationary collapse of autumn 1923, when German cities and towns were legally permitted — and practically compelled — to produce their own emergency currency, known as Notgeld, to meet basic payroll and commercial demands. The Reichsbank simply could not supply denominations fast enough as prices doubled by the day.
The Kölner Verlags-Anstalt und Druckerei was a local commercial printer pressed into monetary service. At the height of the crisis, a single loaf of bread in Germany cost hundreds of millions of marks, which gives this billion-mark denomination a grim sense of the velocity at which purchasing power was being destroyed.