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100 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt- und Landkreis Aachen |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in purple and pale orange on cream paper, framed by an intricate guilloche border with ornamental corner rosettes. The heading 'Stadt- und Landkreis Aachen' appears at the top in Gothic blackletter type, followed by 'Gutschein über' and the denomination 'Hunderttausend Mark' in large decorative script. A three-line validity clause is set in smaller Gothic text at centre, with the issue date 'Aachen, den 1. Juli 1923' below, flanked by two circular eagle seals; the signatures of the Oberbürgermeister and the Vorsitzende des Kreisausschusses appear beneath their respective titles, with the printer's imprint at the foot. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 100000 MARK |
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| Comments |
Aachen's municipal authority issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflation of 1923, a period when the Reichsmark was losing value so rapidly that denominations scaled from thousands to hundreds of billions within months. A 100,000 Mark note, unremarkable by August 1923 standards, would have been worth roughly the price of a loaf of bread at issue and effectively worthless within weeks.
Printed locally by Aachener Verlags- und Druckerei, the note reflects the logistical reality of hyperinflation: centralized Reichsbank supply couldn't keep pace, so municipalities printed their own stopgap currency. Aachen's proximity to the Belgian and Dutch borders added pressure — foreign currency was actively preferred in the region during the French-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr.