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100 000 000 000 Mark Overath
| Issuer | Gemeinde Overath (Municipality of Overath) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| In circulation to | 31 December 1923 |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed in blue on cream paper, the obverse is framed within an intricate geometric interlaced border with decorative corner blocks. The heading reads 'Gutschein der Gemeinde Overath über Mark', with the denomination 'Einhundert Milliarden Mark' set in script typeface; body text in small type identifies the redeeming institutions — the Gemeinde-Kasse in Overath and the Kreissparkasse der Landkreise Köln und Mülheim — along with their branch addresses. The issue date 'Overath, den 22. September 1923' appears above a circular violet official stamp of the Bürgermeister Overath, Bez. Köln, bearing an eagle motif, with a manuscript signature below and the printer's monogram 'ETH' in a circle at the lower margin alongside the expiry notice 'Dieser Gutschein verfällt am 31. Dezember 1923.' |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is letterpress-printed in blue on cream paper, composed entirely of typographic and geometric elements with no pictorial vignette. A bold central panel carries the denomination 'Hundert Milliarden Mark' in large sans-serif type, with 'GEMEINDE OVERATH' set in spaced capitals below; a typeset serial number appears to the right of the denomination. The panel is enclosed within a uniform guilloche-style interlaced geometric border with decorative corner blocks, consistent with the austere production standards of German Notgeld emergency currency of the hyperinflation period. |
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| Comments |
Overath is a small town in the Bergisches Land east of Cologne, and like hundreds of German municipalities in late 1923, it issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — when the Reichsbank's printing presses could no longer keep pace with hyperinflation. By the time notes in the hundred-billion-mark range were being produced, the denomination itself was almost immediately obsolete; the Rentenmark stabilization of November 1923 came within weeks of most such issues.
Municipal Notgeld of this period was typically printed locally on short notice, which accounts for the variation in paper quality and typographic execution seen across surviving examples. Overath's issue is unexceptional as a financial instrument but sits in the very last stratum of the inflation collapse.