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 Gold Mark Stadtsparkasse
| Issuer | Stadtsparkasse Bielefeld |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 | 1 GOLD MARK STADT-SPARKASSE BIELEFELD ES ZAHLE GEGEN DIESEN SCHECK AUS GUTHABEN AN UNS ODER ÜBERBRINGER BIELEFELD, DEN 1.2.23 STADTRAT RUHRHILFE DRUCK: E.GUNDLACH A:G: BIELEFELD GESETZLICH GESCHÜTZT D.G.M. ENTHALTSAMKEIT IST DAS VERGNÜGEN AN SACHEN, WELCHE WIR NICHT KRIEGEN. DRUM LEBE MÄSSIG, DENKE KLUG — WER NICHTS GEBRAUCHT, DER HAT GENUG. |
| Reverse description | The reverse, also printed on linen in red, purple, yellow, and black, centres on a bold red cartouche with the inscription 'STADTSPARK ASSE BIELEFELD' in yellow Gothic lettering above a purple banner reading 'EINE GOLD MARK'. Large silhouetted allegorical figures in black occupy the left and right fields — a devil-like taxation demon with scales and a prostrate figure to the left, and a crowned beast with a crate to the right — with a stylised Germanic figure labelled 'TEUTONE' at centre top and the motto 'ES KANN JA NICHT IMMER SO BLEIBEN' in a panel at upper right. Biblical and political text references run in small type around the entire border, with the artist's signature 'Schreiber' visible at lower right. |
| 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 |
Bielefeld's famous series of fabric-based emergency currency — Stoffgeld — emerged from the hyperinflation crisis of 1923, when the municipal savings bank contracted local textile manufacturer E. Gundlach to produce notes on woven linen. The choice was partly practical: paper supplies were unreliable and linen offered a durability that pulp simply couldn't. But it was also a pointed statement about the town's industrial identity, rooted in the linen trade since the medieval period.
Linen notes from this series are among the more collectible pieces of German Notgeld purely because of their material survival rate — fabric degrades differently than paper, and examples that spent time folded in wallets show characteristic weave stress at the crease lines rather than the fiber tears typical of paper currency.