Catalog
1 Mark
| Issuer | Handelskammer des Memelgebiets (Chamber of Commerce of the Memel Territory) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1922) |
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| Obverse description | Plain cream-toned note with a central guilloche vignette bearing the large denomination numeral '1' and the legend 'Eine Mark' in Gothic blackletter script. The heading 'Notgeld der Handelskammer des Memelgebiets' arcs across the top, with the word 'Mark' repeated at the lower left and right flanks. Below the central vignette, a bilingual authorization text in French and German reads 'Autorisé: Memel le 22 Février 1922' alongside the mention of the High Commissioner of the Allied Powers, with four manuscript signatures beneath. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Chain watermark. |
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| Comments |
The Memel Territory — the strip of Lithuania wedged between the Nemunas delta and the Prussian border — was detached from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 and placed under French administration while its final status was negotiated. The local economy, left without a functioning currency authority, fell to emergency improvisations. The Handelskammer's 1922 issues, including this note, filled that gap; the Chamber of Commerce was acting as a quasi-monetary authority in the absence of any sanctioned one.
Gebrüder Parcus in Munich had a long record printing German emergency currency (Notgeld), and their production here carries the watermarked paper typical of their more serious commissions rather than the plain stock seen in municipal Notgeld. Lithuania seized the territory by force in January 1923, ending both the French mandate and the practical need for these issues within months of their appearance.