10 Goldmarks

Bielefeld's municipal savings bank issued a series of emergency money printed on unconventional materials during the 1923 hyperinflation — silk, linen, and velvet among them. These were not novelties for collectors but functional notgeld, accepted locally when paper currency lost value faster than it could be printed. The velvet examples are the most fragile of the series and frequently show fiber separation along fold lines, which is a known preservation problem specific to this material rather than a sign of heavy use.

Gundlach, a Bielefeld printer, handled the full series locally. The choice of textile substrates was partly practical — paper supply was itself under strain in 1923.