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2 000 000 000 Mark Overprint on 50 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | City of Halle an der Saale (Notgeld) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Thin, smooth beige paper with a light brown letterpress impression. The face carries multi-line text in black Gothic (Fraktur) script stating the promise to pay Fifty Million Mark, issued in September 1923 by Der Magistrat of Halle, together with the validity disclaimer at the foot. A bold red overprint reading ZWEI MILLIARDEN MARK supersedes the original face value, applied diagonally across the central field. The six-digit serial number in black appears to the lower left, flanked by an asterisk to the right of the prefix letter. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Wavy-band watermark (Wellenbänder), Keller #141 |
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| Comments |
By late 1923, German hyperinflation had outpaced any printing house's ability to keep up. Rather than wait for freshly denominated stock, Halle an der Saale — like dozens of other municipalities — simply overprinted existing notes, stamping a 2,000,000,000 Mark face value onto 50,000,000 Mark Notgeld. The multiplier is forty. That arithmetic alone tells the story of how quickly purchasing power was collapsing week to week.
The watermarked paper is a minor curiosity: security features on emergency municipal currency that would be worthless within weeks of issue.