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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
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Size 128 × 83 mm
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Protection type Watermark
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.

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