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10 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Recklinghausen (Magistrat der Stadt Recklinghausen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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| Obverse description | Single-sided letterpress Notgeld note printed in dark green on a yellow-ochre guilloche underprint, enclosed within an ornate foliate border frame. The large bold numeral '10' anchors the upper centre, with the denomination 'Milliarden Mark' set in heavy Gothic blackletter type dominating the central field; the issuing authority legend 'Der Magistrat der Stadt Recklinghausen', place and date of issue (Recklinghausen, den 23 Oktober 1923), and the payment clause are inscribed in smaller Gothic script in the lower half. Two manuscript signatures appear beneath the issuing authority line. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is blank, showing only a faint mirror-image show-through of the obverse letterpress impression and guilloche underprint visible through the thin paper stock, consistent with the single-sided production method standard for German Inflation-era Notgeld emergency currency. |
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| Comments |
Recklinghausen was a mid-sized Ruhr industrial city, and like hundreds of German municipalities in the autumn of 1923, the Magistrat was forced to print its own emergency currency simply to meet payroll. The Reichsbank could not supply notes fast enough as the inflation doubled and redoubled weekly. A ten-billion Mark denomination — unthinkable even twelve months earlier — was routine by October 1923, and this note was almost certainly spent within days of issue, if not hours.
Locally printed Notgeld of this period tends to survive in better condition than nationally circulated issues precisely because so little time elapsed between printing and the November 1923 stabilization. The signatures of Popp and Knaup identify the Bürgermeister and a senior municipal official, the standard authorization pair for Recklinghausen's emergency issues.