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100 Mark
| Issuer | Handelskammer des Memelgebiets (Chamber of Commerce of the Memel Territory) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Currency | Mark (1922) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is laid out on a grey-green guilloche ground with ornate floral and rosette border panels running the full length of both vertical edges. The heading reads 'Notgeld der Handelskammer des Memelgebiets' in Gothic script, centred in the upper portion, beneath which the denomination 'Hundert Mark' appears in large bold Gothic lettering. The note bears five manuscript signatures of authorising officials below the denomination text, with a further printed French-language authorization line at the foot reading 'Autorisé: Memel, le 22 Fev. 1er 1922, Le Haut Commissaire Représentant des Puissances Alliées'; a serial number in red appears at upper right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Memel Hundert Mark 100 |
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| Comments |
The Memel Territory — a strip of Lithuanian coastline with a majority German-speaking population — was detached from Germany under the Treaty of Versailles and placed under French administration in 1920. By 1922, the French were slow to introduce a stable replacement currency, leaving local commerce to improvise. The Chamber of Commerce stepped into that vacuum, issuing emergency notes backed by nothing more than local commercial authority and the expectation of eventual political resolution.
Gebrüder Parcus in Munich had a long history supplying notgeld and emergency scrip to German municipal issuers during the postwar currency chaos — a logical choice for a territory still culturally and commercially tied to Germany despite its uncertain legal status. Lithuania seized Memel by force in January 1923, rendering these notes obsolete within months of printing.