100 Mark

Cologne's municipal authority began issuing Notgeld in earnest as the Imperial government's grip on currency supply collapsed during and after the First World War. Stadt Köln was among the larger German cities with the administrative capacity to produce relatively professional emergency notes — not the crude scrip typical of smaller Gemeinden — and the 100 Mark denomination placed this note at the upper end of municipal issue values for the period.

The official stamp served as the primary authentication mechanism, a pragmatic solution when intaglio printing and sophisticated security features were unavailable to city treasuries. Cologne came under Allied occupation in December 1918, which added a further layer of monetary complexity: British occupation authorities operated alongside a civilian administration still issuing its own paper.