Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Mark
| Issuer | Swakopmunder Buchhandlung |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | German South West African Mark (1885-1915) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gutschein NUMMER Eine Mark Swakopmunder Buchhandlung Ges. m. b. H., Swakopmund |
| Reverse description | Uniface; the plain reverse exhibits a lightly textured paper surface with no printed design, lettering, or ornamentation. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Swakopmunder Buchhandlung — a bookshop and stationery business in Swakopmund — issued these emergency notes after South African forces occupied German South West Africa in 1915 and conventional currency supplies collapsed. A stationery shop issuing circulating money is unusual by any measure, but the territory's isolation made improvisation necessary, and local merchants became de facto monetary authorities.
By 1916, German South West Africa was under South African military administration, meaning these notes circulated under occupation. The Buchhandlung's own printing facilities, used for commercial stationery work, made self-production straightforward.
The series ran through at least 1918, when the occupation administration moved toward more formal currency arrangements.