Catalog
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| Issuer | Volksbank Ladenburg e.G.m.b.H. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Size | 177 × 86 mm |
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| Obverse description | A cheque-format Notgeld note printed in blue on cream paper, enclosed within a fine guilloche border with a scalloped wave pattern at top and bottom. The issuer's name in Gothic blackletter script — Volksbank Ladenburg e.G.m.b.H. — occupies the central field, above the denomination spelled out as Eine Milliarde Mark in large display type; the numeral value 1,000,000,000 appears vertically in the left panel. The date Ladenburg, den 18. Oktober 1923 is printed at lower centre, accompanied by two manuscript signatures and a rubber stamp reading Chemische Fabrik. |
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| Obverse lettering | E.S. No 000418 * Mk. 1,000,000,000 Die Volksbank Ladenburg e.G.m.b.H. wolle zahlen gegen diesen Scheck aus meinem Guthaben an ... oder Ueberbringer * Eine Milliarde Mark * Ladenburg, den 18. Oktober 1923. Schecks, in welchen der Zusatz — oder Ueberbringer — durchstrichen oder eine Zahlungsfrist angegeben ist, werden nicht bezahlt. Dr. Ernst Schulze Chemische Fabrik |
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| Comments |
Volksbank Ladenburg was a small cooperative savings bank in a town of a few thousand people on the Rhine, and it was issuing nine-zero denominations because the Reichsbank had simply lost control of the money supply by mid-1923. Under the emergency provisions that allowed municipal and private institutions to print notgeld, cooperatives like this one were legally authorized to cover local wage payments when official currency could not arrive fast enough to meet payroll — hyperinflation was advancing faster than the printing presses could follow.
The billion-mark threshold was crossed in August and September 1923. Notes of this size were obsolete within weeks.