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100 Milliarden - Heilbronn

Issuer City of Heilbronn
Year 1923
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Value 100 000 000 000 Mark (100 000 000 000)
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Reverse description A beaded border surrounds the entire reverse. Within the field, two standing figures are depicted in low relief: an elderly man leaning on a walking stick and an elderly woman beside him, bowed in distress, evoking the plight of impoverished citizens during the hyperinflation crisis. Encircling the figures is a continuous legend in raised lettering separated by hyphens, reading as a complete poignant phrase referencing charity and sacrifice for the Fatherland.
Reverse script Latin
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Additional information

By October 1923, Germany's hyperinflation had rendered the Reichsmark so worthless that municipal and regional authorities across the country were issuing their own emergency currency — Notgeld — simply to keep local commerce functioning. Heilbronn's 100-Milliarden-Mark piece represents the upper extreme of that collapse: a denomination that would have been unthinkable eighteen months earlier.

The gilding on the brass flan was not decorative vanity. At this denomination, the issuing city had an interest in producing something that felt like it held value, however briefly.

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