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1 000 000 000 Mark overstamp on 20 000 Mark
| Issuer | Gemeinde Dittersbach bei Waldenburg (Lower Silesia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 000 000 000 Mark (1 000 000 000) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Plain beige note printed in black letterpress within a decorative border of repeating diamond-pattern units. At centre top, a shield-shaped vignette bears a tree motif flanked by the date numerals '18' and '18', with the denomination '20000 M.' to the upper right and a handwritten serial number to the upper left. The body text sets out the municipal payment obligation in Fraktur typeface, signed by 'Der Gemeindevorstand' with two facsimile names below, and the printer's imprint at the foot. A large diagonal violet rubber-stamp overstamp reading 'Aufgewertet auf Eine Milliarde M. Der Gemeindevorstand' is applied across the entire face, revaluing the note to one billion Mark. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is entirely unprinted, plain beige paper with no text, vignettes, or ornamentation. |
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| Comments |
Dittersbach bei Waldenburg was a small coal-mining settlement in Lower Silesia, and its local authority — like hundreds of German municipalities in late 1923 — was forced into issuing its own emergency currency simply to meet payroll as the Reichsmark collapsed beneath hyperinflation. The overstamp method was the fastest solution available: rather than commission entirely new plates, existing 20,000 Mark stock was overprinted with the new denomination, compressing months of monetary deterioration into a single ink stamp.
The printer, W. Grüzner, was a local commercial press — not a security printer. That the signatures of Dinter and E. Bergmann appear on a billion-Mark note produced by a village print shop captures the administrative chaos of October 1923 more plainly than any economic history can.