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 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Kreuznach (City of Kreuznach) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 000 Mark (100 000) |
| 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 | The left panel carries the municipal arms of Kreuznach — a merloned tower above a quartered shield bearing crosses and a chequered pattern — flanked above and below by decorative sunburst ornaments, with the denomination '100000' and the issuer legend 'Stadt Kreuznach' printed in Gothic script. The right panel, separated by a wavy-rule border column, presents the Notgeld text in Fraktur typeface, headed by the series letter and serial number, followed by the denomination 'Hunderttausend Mark' in large display script. An official circular embossed stamp of the municipality is applied to the lower centre, accompanied by a manuscript signature of the Bürgermeister and the place-and-date line 'Kreuznach, den 13. Juli 1923'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted and plain, showing only the thin paper stock with fold lines and age-related foxing. A blind embossed circular municipal seal — bearing the Kreuznach coat of arms and surrounding legend — is impressed into the centre of the note, visible in relief against the unadorned background. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Kreuznach was one of hundreds of German municipalities that resorted to emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflationary spiral of 1923, when the Reichsmark's collapse made official denominations functionally useless almost as soon as they were printed. By mid-1923, 100,000 Mark was barely enough for a loaf of bread, and municipal authorities were printing new denominations weekly just to keep pace.
The embossed seal was the city's primary authentication device — a practical choice when sophisticated printing infrastructure wasn't available locally. Worth noting that Kreuznach-issued Notgeld from this period is reasonably common in collections, as municipal issues were frequently saved by contemporaries who recognized even then that they were witnessing something historically abnormal.