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10 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Köln (City of Cologne) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | GUTSCHEIN über 10 MILLIARDEN MARK Stadt Köln Serie B Dieser Gutschein wird von allen städtischen und anderen öffentlichen Kassen in Zahlung genommen. Er verliert seine Gültigkeit einen Monat nach Aufkündigung in den Kölner Ortsblättern. Die Stadtgemeinde Köln haftet für die Einlösung. Köln, 22. September 1923 Der Oberbürgermeister: Mark 10 000 000 000 Mark Kölner Verlags-Anstalt und Druckerei A-G |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in olive-green and black with a dense guilloche underprint centred on a radiating rosette motif. The heraldic shield of the City of Cologne — divided with a crown above ermine stripes — is placed at the top centre flanked by the curved inscription 'Stadt Köln'. A large Fraktur calligraphic legend reading 'Zehn Milliarden Mark' dominates the centre, and the numeral denomination '10 000 000 000' appears in all four corners within the guilloche border. |
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| Comments |
Cologne issued this note in the autumn of 1923, when the Reichsmark was collapsing so rapidly that municipal authorities across Germany were printing their own emergency currency — Notgeld — simply to meet weekly payrolls. A ten-billion-mark denomination, once unimaginable, had become routine small change by October of that year.
The signature is Konrad Adenauer's, then serving as Oberbürgermeister of Cologne, a post he held from 1917 until his forced removal by the Nazis in 1933. He would, of course, become West Germany's first Federal Chancellor in 1949 — which makes signed examples of particular biographical interest to collectors working outside pure numismatics.
Printed locally by Kölner Verlags-Anstalt, which handled much of the city's inflation-era output.