Catalog
½ Mark
| Issuer | Stadtkasse Memel (City Treasury of Memel) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Green cross-hatched underprint on plain paper stock, enclosed within a decorative border of repeating foliate motifs in black letterpress. The upper portion carries the series designation and serial number at right, below which the issuing authority inscription appears in Gothic blackletter type. The denomination 'Eine halbe ½ Mark' is set in large red Fraktur script at centre, with the authorising body 'Der Magistrat der Stadt Memel' printed in black Gothic type below. Two manuscript signatures appear across the lower half of the note. A faint municipal arms watermark-style vignette is visible at left within the underprint field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Giltig bis zum Aufruf im "Memeler Dampfboot" durch den Magistrat. Eine halbe ½ Mark Dieser Schein gilt nur in Stadt- und Landkreis Memel. |
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| Comments |
Memel — the city now known as Klaipėda — occupied a uniquely contested position in the early 1920s. Detached from Germany by the Versailles Treaty and administered by France from 1920, it was seized by Lithuanian irregular forces in January 1923. Local notgeld like this Stadtkasse issue filled a genuine currency vacuum during the French administration period, when the city's monetary status was unresolved and Reichsmark supply was officially severed.
The Stadtkasse series is modest in ambition — emergency municipal scrip, not a prestige printing. Surviving examples frequently show the horizontal fold lines common to notes stored in municipal cashier drawers rather than circulated through retail trade.