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!
100 000 000 Mark Deutsche Reichsbahn
| Issuer | Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Imperial Railway) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Printed in brown on cream paper, the note carries a vertical guilloche panel along the left margin bearing the denomination numeral repeated in a column. The main field is set within an ornate guilloche border and displays the issuer name 'Deutsche Reichsbahn' at the top in Roman type, beneath which the denomination 'Hundert Millionen Mark' is rendered in large Gothic blackletter script. A block of text in Gothic script states the legal tender and redemption conditions, followed by the place and date 'Berlin, den 25. September 1923', the signatory designation 'Der Reichsverkehrsminister', a handwritten signature, a serial letter prefix and red serial number at lower left, and an oval official stamp of the Reichsverkehrsminister bearing the Imperial Eagle at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Watermark |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Deutsche Reichsbahn began issuing its own emergency currency in 1923 because the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to meet demand. Railway workers needed to be paid, and the state railway system — one of the largest employers in Germany — had both the institutional weight and the physical infrastructure to distribute notgeld at scale. By the time denominations reached nine figures, payroll calculations had become an exercise in zeroes rather than economics.
The S-prefix in the Pick reference designates this as a private or semi-official issuer rather than a central bank note — a distinction that mattered legally at the time but meant little to the worker receiving it on a Friday afternoon in October 1923.